Workflow management system for tracking event objects associated with entities and secondary entities

ABSTRACT

A workflow management system enables an entity to store information components in one or more publicly accessible databases, the information components associated with an acquisition by the acquisition entity. A unique entity identifier is associated with the information components in the databases, such that when reviewing entities access the information component via the databases and perform a similar event, a similar event object with the unique entity identifier is transmitted to the workflow management system. The information components may also be distributed by secondary entities, which may be automatically selected by the workflow management system based on historical data associated with respective secondary entities. When event objects initiated by information components stored by a secondary entity are received at the workflow management system, some or all of a maximum value increment associated with the acquisition is partitioned between the secondary entity and the acquisition entity.

BACKGROUND

Tracking of event objects, such as associated with behavior orinteractions of entities in response to information stored on variouspublicly accessible databases is a non-trivial task.

SUMMARY

A workflow management system enables an acquisition entity to storeinformation components in one or more publicly accessible databases, theinformation components associated with an acquisition by the entity. Aunique entity identifier is associated with the information componentsin the databases, such that when reviewing entities access theinformation component via the databases and perform an event associatedwith the information components, such as accessing, reading, and/orotherwise interacting with the information components, a similar eventobject with the unique entity identifier is transmitted to the workflowmanagement system. The information components may also be distributed bysecondary entities, which may be automatically selected by the workflowmanagement system based on historical data associated with respectivesecondary entities. When events associated with information componentsstored by a secondary entity performed and indicated to the workflowmanagement system, some or all of a maximum value increment associatedwith the acquisition is partitioned between the secondary entity and theacquisition entity.

In order to facilitate an understanding of the systems and methodsdiscussed herein, a number of terms are defined below. The terms definedbelow, as well as other terms used herein, should be construed toinclude the provided definitions, the ordinary and customary meaning ofthe terms, and/or any other implied meaning for the respective terms.Thus, the definitions below do not limit the meaning of these terms, butonly provide exemplary definitions.

Entity: an individual, group of individuals, business, other entity,and/or combination of the aforementioned.

Acquisition Entity: an entity that acquires a product from a vendor. Anacquisition entity may then store (or cause storage of) informationcomponents associated with the product on one or more network accessibledatabases (or in some embodiments an acquisition entity does not storeinformation components associated with the product). Such informationcomponents are associated with a unique entity identifier.

Secondary Entity: an entity that stores information components on anetwork accessible database on behalf of an acquisition entity. Suchinformation components are associated with a unique secondary entityidentifier and/or a unique entity identifier (of the acquisitionentity). A secondary entity may also be referred to herein as, and issynonymous with, a “distributor.”

Reviewing Entity: an entity that accesses (e.g., views on a networkaccessible database) information components, either associated with anacquisition entity identifier and/or a secondary entity identifier.

Information Components: data regarding a particular event or objectassociated with the particular event. For example, informationcomponents may include information regarding a physical object that wasacquired by the acquisition entity and information indicating howreviewing entities may also obtain the same or similar physical object,such as from a same vendor as the acquisition entity. The informationcomponents may include “promotional materials” as discuss elsewhereherein. A physical object may be referred to herein as a product. Eachof these terms (physical object and product) are used for ease ofdescription and should be interpreted to include other “non-physicalobjects”, such as services, online objects, or any items (whethertangible or intangible) that may be acquired by an entity.

Network accessible databases: Any online data stores having informationfrom a plurality of different entities that provides selective access tothe information based on access restrictions determined by theacquisition entity (and/or other entity), for example. Such online datastores may include social media networks wherein entities storeinformation that is accessible to certain other entities with aparticular relationship with the entity (e.g., other individuals withina certain level of connections with the entity). References herein to“databases” may refer to any type of data structure for storing and/ororganizing data, including, but not limited to, relational databases(for example, Oracle database, mySQL database, and the like),spreadsheets, XML files, and text files, among others. The various terms“database,” “data store,” and “data source” may be used interchangeablyin the present disclosure.

Event object: an indicator of a particular event performed by an entity.For example, an event object may indicate that information componentsassociated with a particular unique identifier (e.g., associated with asecondary and/or acquisition entity) has been accessed and/or interactedwith in a particular manner. In another example, an event object mayindicate that a particular product was purchased by an entity (e.g., areviewing entity), and may include or be associated with an identifierof an acquisition entity (and/or secondary entity) that storedinformation components regarding the particular event.

Workflow management system: a computing system that tracks events ofentities, such as acquisition entities, secondary entities, and/orreviewing entities. For example, a workflow management system mayprovide an acquisition entity with information components (include theunique acquisition entity identifier) for storage on one or more networkaccessible databases. The workflow management system then receives eventobjects (or activity identifiers) indicating when a reviewing entity hasperformed a qualifying action in response to the information components.A qualifying action, for example, may include accessing and/orinteracting with information components in a particular manner, and/oracquisition of a physical object similar to (or the same as, or from asame provider) a physical object acquired by the acquisition entity andindicated in the information components.

Secondary Entity Selection Model: A model, algorithm, or ruleset, thatis executed by the workflow management system (and/or other computersystem) to identify one or more secondary entities to associate with aparticular product acquisition of an acquisition entity. Invitations tobecome secondary entities for a particular product acquisition of anentity may be automatically transmitted to one or more potentialsecondary entities identified by the selection model and, if thesecondary entities accept the invitation, they may then storeinformation components including a unique identifier of the secondaryentity on one or more network accessible databases. A secondary entityselection model may be based on various combinations of entityparameters. For example, potential secondary entities may be required tohave acquired one or more products (and in some cases the same orsimilar product as was acquired by the acquisition entity) from a samevendor (e.g., an online vendor, vendor, or other provider of products)as the acquisition entity. The potential secondary entities may furtherbe limited by the secondary entity selection model based on variousother parameters, such as gross number of clicks on informationcomponents (e.g., promotional material shared by the potential secondaryentity in connection with a previous product acquisition from a samevendor), a ratio of a number of legitimate clicks and the gross numberof clicks, the legitimate clicks comprising clicks considered legitimateand associated with previously shared information components by thepotential secondary entity, a compensation (or payment) incentiveassociated with previously shared information components by thepotential secondary entity, a cost per click associated with previouslyshared information components by the potential secondary entity, a totalamount of compensation (e.g. rebate portions) outstanding associatedwith the potential secondary entity, and/or various other parametersdiscussed herein.

Social networking is a major network accessible database used forcommunications today. Individuals are able to broadcast messages torelatives, friends, acquaintances and the world through technologiessuch as the internet and mobile devices. Because of the rapid speed ofcommunications offered by these technologies, individuals are able toreach an audience much larger than that reachable by traditionalcommunications means.

Those offering products and services may wish to take advantage of thecommunication possibilities opened up by social networking. As a generalmatter, entities such as vendors (e.g., merchants, retailers, or othersthat sell or trade products, either online, via brick and mortarestablishments, or otherwise) may wish to reach wide audiences bytransmitting promotional materials using computer network systems. Oftenit is advantageous to have promotional materials originate, or appear tooriginate, from entities that are trusted by the viewers of thepromotional materials. For example, a person viewing a message relatingto a product is more likely to be interested in the message (asindicated, for example, by clicking on a link in the message, orpurchasing a product based on the message) if the message originatesfrom a friend or acquaintance of the viewer. Furthermore, that viewermay also be more likely to be interested in the message about theproduct if the originator has more of a direct connection with theproduct (for example, the originator has purchased or tested theproduct). Thus, it may be advantageous to create an appropriateenvironment so that such originators of product messages can bediscovered and given incentives to spread effective messages. Some orall of these considerations motivate the various aspects and embodimentsas disclosed herein.

Accordingly, presented herein are systems and methods that enableproduct (or service) purchasers (e.g., acquisition entities), to sharepromotional materials (e.g., information components) via social networks(and/or other network accessible databases) and may further enable thepurchasers to receive rewards, such as rebates, in response tointeractions with the promotional materials by others (e.g., reviewingentities, such as friends of the purchaser). In various embodiments, thepromotional materials shared by the purchaser relates to the productpurchased, which may lend greater credibility and/or interest in thepromotional material being shared.

Additionally disclosed are systems and methods of syndication of suchpromotional materials to secondary distributors (also referred to hereinas “third-party distributors”) and revenue sharing of resulting rewards.For example, a purchaser who is offered a reward for sharing informationcomponents may opt to allow secondary entities to share thoseinformation components also, a desirable option if the acquisitionentity lacks the desire and/or ability to sufficiently distribute thoseinformation components. One or more secondary entities may then receivesome or all of the associated reward (e.g., the purchase rebate) inexchange.

In one embodiment, a method for utilizing one or more secondary entitiesfor posting of information components related to a product is disclosed.In this embodiment, the method is performed by a workflow managementsystem having one or more computer processors. The computer systemassociates an account of an acquisition entity of a product withpurchase data, wherein the product was purchased from a vendor andqualifies for a rebate of up to a maximum rebate amount that isconditionally payable to the acquisition entity and/or one or moresecondary entities. In some embodiments, the purchase data includes anamount paid by an acquisition entity for the product. The computersystem identifies the one or more secondary entities based on asecondary entity selection model, such as by determining a set ofprevious acquisition entities that previously purchased a product fromthe vendor; determining a first subset of previous acquisition entitiesselected from the set of previous acquisition entities, the first subsetincluding previous acquisition entities that previously claimed arebate; evaluating each of the previous acquisition entities of thefirst subset of previous acquisition entities according to one or moredistributor criteria (e.g., such as may be part of the secondary entityselection model); and based on the evaluation, designating one or moreof the previous acquisition entities of the first subset of previousacquisition entities as the one or more secondary entities.

In one embodiment, the workflow management system determines a clickvalue corresponding to a monetary value to be paid in response to eachof a predetermined quantity of respective clicks on first promotionalmaterial by respective viewers, the first information components sharedby the acquisition entity in connection with the rebate. In addition, asyndication allocation (e.g., a partitioning of a maximum rebate) isdetermined that indicates a first portion of the click value to be paidto the acquisition entity and a second portion of the click value to bepaid to respective secondary entities in response to respective clickson second information components by respective viewers, the secondinformation components shared by the respective secondary entities inconnection with the rebate.

The computer system transmits an invitation to the one or more secondaryentities. In response a received indication of acceptance of theinvitation from a first of the secondary entities, the first secondaryentity becomes a first secondary entity of the second informationcomponents and is eligible to receive at least portions of the secondportion of the click values.

After the computer system receives indications that a viewer has clickedon second information components posted using one or more socialnetworking accounts of the first secondary entity, the computer system,in response to determining that the maximum rebate amount has not beenreached and based at least in part upon the syndication sharingpercentage, credits the account of the acquisition entity the firstportion of the click value, and credits an account of the firstsecondary entity the second portion of the click value.

In some embodiments, the secondary entity selection model (which mayinclude one or more distributor criteria such as the following)comprises at least one of: a gross number of clicks on informationcomponents shared by the previous acquisition entity (e.g., a potentialsecondary entity) in connection with a previously claimed rebate on apreviously purchased product from the vendor, a ratio of a number oflegitimate clicks and the gross number of clicks, the legitimate clickscomprising clicks considered legitimate and associated with previouslyshared information components by the previous acquisition entity inconnection with the previously claimed rebate on the previous purchasedproduct from the vendor, a payment incentive associated with previouslyshared information components by the previous acquisition entity inconnection with the previously claimed rebate on the previous purchasedproduct from the vendor, a cost per click associated with previouslyshared information components by the previous acquisition entity inconnection with the previously claimed rebate on the previous purchasedproduct from the vendor, and a total amount of rebates outstandingassociated with the previous acquisition entity.

In one embodiment, the gross number of clicks is based at least in partupon a total number of clicks on information components shared by theprevious acquisition entity in connection with the previously claimedrebate.

In one embodiment, identifying the one or more secondary entitiesfurther includes determining the number of legitimate clicks based atleast in part upon one or more of: a timing of the click, an addressfrom which the click originated, or a relation between the click and oneor more other clicks.

In one embodiment, the payment incentive indicates a monetary value atwhich the previous acquisition entity is willing to share informationcomponents, based at least in part upon a monetary value paid to theprevious acquisition entity in response to the previous acquisitionentity sharing information components associated with the previouslyclaimed rebate.

In one embodiment, the cost per click indicates a monetary value atwhich the previous acquisition entity is willing to share informationcomponents, based at least in part upon a monetary value paid to theprevious acquisition entity in response to a click on shared informationcomponents associated with the previously claimed rebate.

In one embodiment, the total amount of rebates outstanding is based atleast in part upon a monetary value yet to be paid to the previousacquisition entity in connection with the previously claimed rebates.

In one embodiment, evaluating each of the previous acquisition entitiesaccording to one or more distributor criteria comprises calculating aweighted sum using the one or more distributor criteria.

In one embodiment, the syndication allocation is calculated based atleast in part upon one or more syndication offer criteria, the one ormore syndication offer criteria comprising at least one of: the clickvalue, a remaining value indicating a portion of the maximum rebateamount not yet paid to the acquisition entity or respective secondaryentities, a payment incentive associated with a secondary entities ofthe respective secondary entities, a cost per click associated with asecondary entities of the respective secondary entities, one or moreinputs received from the vendor, the acquisition entity, or therespective secondary entities, and a fee to be paid to a promotionmanager or workflow management system.

In one embodiment, a computing system comprises one or more computerstorage devices configured to store software instructions, one or morecomputer processors configured to execute the software instructionsstored on the computer storage devices. The system includes an accountmodule comprising instructions stored on the computer storage media, theaccount module being configured to associate an account of anacquisition entity of a product with purchase data, wherein the productwas purchased from a vendor, and qualifies for a rebate of up to amaximum rebate amount that is conditionally payable to the acquisitionentity and one or more secondary entities. In some embodiments, thepurchase data includes an amount paid by the acquisition entity for theproduct. The account module further identifies the one or more secondaryentities by determining a set of previous acquisition entities thatpreviously purchased a product from the vendor; determining a firstsubset of previous acquisition entities selected from the set ofprevious acquisition entities, the first subset including previousacquisition entities that previously claimed a rebate; evaluating eachof the previous acquisition entities of the first subset of previousacquisition entities according to one or more distributor criteria; andbased on the evaluation, designating one or more of the previousacquisition entities of the first subset of previous acquisitionentities as the one or more secondary entities;

In one embodiment, the system comprises a rebate computation modulecomprising instructions stored on the computer storage media, the rebatecomputation module being configured to determine a click valuecorresponding to a monetary value to be paid in response to each of apredetermined quantity of respective clicks on first informationcomponents by respective reviewing entities, the first informationcomponents shared by the acquisition entity in connection with therebate. The rebate computation module also determines a syndicationallocation indicating a first portion of the click value to be paid tothe acquisition entity and a second portion of the click value to bepaid to respective secondary entities in response to respective clickson second information components by respective reviewing entities, thesecond information components shared by the respective secondaryentities in connection with the rebate;

In one embodiment, the system comprises a rebate promotion modulecomprising instructions stored on the computer storage media, the rebatepromotion module being configured to transmit an invitation to the oneor more secondary entities; receive an indication of acceptance of theinvitation from a first of the secondary entities, whereby the firstsecondary entity becomes a first secondary entity of the secondinformation components and is eligible to receive at least portions ofthe second portion of the click values. After the rebate promotionmodule receives indications that a viewer has clicked on secondinformation components posted using one or more social networkingaccounts of the first secondary entity, the rebate promotion module, inresponse to a determination that the maximum rebate amount has not beenreached and based at least in part upon the syndication sharingpercentage, credits the account of the acquisition entity the firstportion of the click value, and credits an account of the firstsecondary entity the second portion of the click value.

These and further embodiments are described in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network system including a promotionalmanagement system, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a workflow management system, as used in anembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process of providing a rebate promotion, asused in an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process of offering promotions, as used in anembodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process of creating a rebate promotion, asused in an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example data structure of promotiondata, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process of managing a purchase of an itemassociated with a promotion, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a sample user interface enabling an acquisition entity of aproduct on a vendor's website to participate in a rebate promotion, asused in an embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a sample user interface allowing the acquisition entity tosign up for a rebate promotion, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a sample user interface for sharing information components asused in an embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a process of participating in a promotion, asused in an embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a user interface for confirming an account with the workflowmanagement system, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a user interface of a rebate promotion management console, asused in an embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a process of handling clicks on informationcomponents as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a process of syndicating a rebate promotion,as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a data structure of a promotion instance,as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a process of allocating rebates, as used in anembodiment.

FIG. 18 is a table containing acquisition entities that haveparticipated in a rebate promotion, and may be identified as potentialdistributors, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of a process for designating an acquisitionentity as a potential distributor in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 20 illustrates some of the secondary distributor criteria that maybe used in some embodiments.

FIG. 21 illustrates various factors that may be used in determining anallocation in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 22 is a user interface in which acquisition entity is given anoption to sign up as a potential distributor, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of a process for syndicating a rebate promotionwith one or more potential distributors, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 24 is a user interface for allowing a vendor to configure rebatepromotions at a workflow management system, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 25 is a user interface for displaying rebate data in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 26 is a user interface for displaying rebate data in accordancewith some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A workflow management system enables an acquisition entity to storeinformation components in one or more publicly accessible databases inresponse to the workflow management systems receiving an event objectassociated with a unique identifier of the entity. The unique entityidentifier is associated with the information components in thedatabases, such that when reviewing entities access the informationcomponent via the databases and perform a similar event, a similar eventobject with the unique entity identifier is transmitted to the workflowmanagement system. The information components may also be distributed bysecondary entities, which may be automatically selected by the workflowmanagement system based on historical data associated with respectivesecondary entities. The information components stored in onlinedatabases by the secondary entities are associated with respectivesecondary entity identities so that when event objects initiated bythose information components is received from by the workflow managementsystem, some or all of the associated event objects are attributable tothe appropriate secondary entity.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network system including a workflowmanagement system, as used in an embodiment. The network system of FIG.1 may include workflow management system 101 which may be one or morecomputing servers including computer hardware such as computerprocessors, volatile and/or nonvolatile storage, input/output devices,network communications devices and the like. In an embodiment, workflowmanagement system 101 includes multiple computing devices connected viaa distributed network. In an embodiment, workflow management system 101includes a cloud computing system. The workflow management system mayalso be referred to and is synonymous with a “promotion managementsystem.”

Workflow management system 101 may be connected to one or more networks102. The networks may include, for example, any combination of theInternet, LANs, MANs, WANs, cellular communication networks, POTSnetworks, and so on. In an embodiment, workflow management system 101communicates with networks 102 via a wired and/or wireless connectionsuch as an Ethernet connection, a Wi-Fi connection, a cable connection,a T1 connection, a DSL connection, a cellular communications connection,and/or the like.

Network 102 may further be coupled with vendor 103, acquisition entity104, social network 105, reviewing entity 106, and distributor 107. Inan embodiment, each of vendor 103, acquisition entity 104, socialnetwork 105, reviewing entity 106, and distributor 107 includes one ormore computing devices that are connected to network 102 by one or moreof the connection technologies described previously and/or by anotherform of connection.

In an embodiment, each of vendor 103, acquisition entity 104, networkaccessible databases 105, reviewing entity 106, and distributor 107 maybe controlled by one or more users. For example, vendor 103 may comprisea computing device operated by an owner of a retail store and/or anappropriate administrator related to a retail store. Acquisition entity104 may be a computing device operated by one or more individualspurchasing products. Network accessible databases 105 may be a computingsystem operating a social network, website, or other related system andcontrolled by one or more system administrators and/or other users.Reviewing entity 106 may be a computing device operated by one or moreindividuals viewing information components via a web browser or otherapplication operating on the computing device. Distributor 107 may be acomputing device operated by one or more individuals and/or entitiesdistributing information components on behalf of an acquisition entity104. These and other terms, as used throughout this specification, mayrefer to the computing device and/or the user or operator of the device,in various embodiments.

Vendor 103 may be a computing device operated by a vendor of goodsand/or services. Additionally and/or alternatively, vendor 103 may beany computing system offering services and/or any computing systemoperated by an entity offering products and/or services, includingentities that are not technically vendors, such as wholesalers,individual sellers, etc. Vendor 103 may wish to connect to workflowmanagement system 101 in order to provide rebate promotions toacquisition entities of products, services, and the like from the vendor103.

Acquisition entity 104 may be a computing device operated by anindividual who purchases items from vendor 103, purchases services fromvendor 103 and/or otherwise engages in a transaction with vendor 103.Acquisition entity 104 may interact with the same computing device thatis vendor 103, with another computing device operated by an entityrelating to vendor 103, and/or directly with an entity relating to thecomputing device. In an embodiment, acquisition entity 104 may beoffered a rebate as a result of making such a purchase or entering sucha transaction with vendor 103. The rebate may be offered by vendor 103and/or by another entity such as the manufacturer of the productpurchased. The rebate may be offered in an embodiment in exchange foracquisition entity 104 propagating a promotion for vendor 103 and/oranother entity.

Network accessible databases 105 may be a social networking systemand/or other communication system. In various embodiments, networkaccessible databases 105 may be a user profile sharing system, a blog, amicroblog, a content management system, a user contributed contentsystem, a news website, a community news website, a community submittedcontent website, an email system, an email mailing list system, awebpage, a news group, and so on.

In an embodiment, acquisition entity 104 places information componentsrelating to a product purchased from vendor 103 (or some other productor entity indicated by the particular promotion) on network accessibledatabases 105. For example, acquisition entity 104 may submit an entryto a blog relating to the promotion, send one or more emails relating tothe promotion, send communications to friends relating to the promotion,and the like. In an embodiment, network accessible databases 105 mayenable the content submitted by acquisition entity 104 to beredistributed on the same network accessible databases and/or on othernetwork accessible databases or communication media, thereby enablingthe information components to potentially be distributed virally. Theterm “network accessible databases” may thus refer to a specific type ofnetwork service, such as a web site, or to other forms of communicationwithin a network or multiple networks.

Reviewing entity 106 is an individual and/or computing device operatedby the individual that receives and views the promotional content sharedby acquisition entity 104. For example, reviewing entity 106 may receivean email message, SMS text, and/or other such communication fromacquisition entity 104 including the information components.Alternatively, reviewing entity 106 may read the information componentsfrom the acquisition entity's website, blog, microblog, submittedcontent, public user profile, and the like. Reviewing entity 106 maythen access content based on the information components such as, forexample, clicking a link to a website identified in the informationcomponents (e.g., a website of the vendor 103 for the same and/orsimilar products as were purchased by the acquisition entity 104). In anembodiment, such a click and/or other access may cause the acquisitionentity to receive all or a portion of the rebate offered by vendor 103or other entity. In an embodiment, such access further directs reviewingentity 106 to content on a server offered by vendor 103 or anotherappropriate entity relating to the information components.

In some situations, an acquisition entity 104 may receive an offer for arebate in exchange for distributing information components, as describedabove, but may be unable or unwilling to distribute the informationcomponents. For example, purchase 104 may choose not to be a member ofsocial networking sites or may not have a sufficient number of contactsor relationships on those sites to claim a all or a significant portionof the offered rebate. In such cases, acquisition entity 104 may find itdifficult or impossible to achieve a sufficient number of interactionswith the information components to entitle the acquisition entity to asubstantial rebate. In such situations, it would be advantageous for theworkflow management system 101 to provide options such that theinformation components will still be shared.

Thus, in an embodiment, the workflow management system 101 offers theacquisition entity 104 an option to “syndicate” rebate promotions. Theprocess of syndication is discussed in detail throughout thisspecification. Briefly, an acquisition entity 104 may opt to syndicate arebate, and where the acquisition entity does so, the workflowmanagement system 101 enables third parties, such as distributors 107,to distribute the same or similar information components on behalf ofthe acquisition entity 104. When a viewer 106 interacts with theinformation components posted by a distributor 107, then the rebate maybe split between acquisition entity 104 and distributor 107.

As explained above, in various embodiments, promotions and/orinformation components may be shared, distributed, and otherwiseprovided. Information components may take on many different forms. Forexample, in various embodiments, information components may includebranded content, advertisements, videos, images, texts, audio, productreviews, and the like. In an embodiment, information components providedto the acquisition entity 104 are directly tied or otherwise related toa transaction performed by the acquisition entity 104, such as apurchase of a product and/or service from the vendor 103.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a workflow management system, as used in anembodiment. Workflow management system 101 may be one or more computingdevices, including computer hardware. Workflow management system 101 mayfurther include one or more modules which may be implemented asexecutable instructions in software and/or hardware such as circuitry.Workflow management system 101 may further include data storage systemssuch as hard disks, read only memory, random access memory, flashmemory, removable storage media, and the like.

Workflow management system 101 may include a user interaction system 201which may be implemented as one or more software and/or hardwaremodules. In an embodiment, user interaction system 201 may beimplemented on independent computing hardware. User interaction system201 may be configured to handle one or more user interactions. Such userinteractions may include, for example, requests to create promotionssubmitted for vendor 103 (e.g., setting up a new promotion on product Xfor the vendor 103), requests to engage in rebate promotion transactionsinitiated by acquisition entity 104 (e.g., the acquisition entity buysproduct X and signs up for the promotion set up by vendor 103), and/orrequests to access information components and/or locations identified ininformation components made by reviewing entity 106 (e.g., a reviewingentity 106 views information components posted to network accessibledatabases 105 and clicks on a link).

Promotion system 202 may also be included in workflow management system101. Promotion system 202 may be implemented as one or more softwareand/or hardware modules and may be operated on independent computinghardware. Promotion system 202 may be configured to manage promotions,such as rebate promotions. Thus, it may manage parameters and/or otherinformation about current, past, and/or future promotions to be offered.

Promotion system 202 may further communicate with promotion database204, for example to store and/or retrieve information about promotions.Promotion database 204 may be located within workflow management system101 and/or located externally and accessed via one or more networks.Promotion database 204 may include in various embodiments a flat filestore, a hierarchical file store, a SQL database store, an objectoriented database, a multidimensional database, and so on.

Account system 203 may be included in workflow management system 101 andimplemented as one or more software and/or hardware modules. In anembodiment, account system 203 may be operated on independent computinghardware. Account system 203 may be configured to manage one or moreacquisition entity accounts (e.g., purchaser accounts). Such acquisitionentity accounts (e.g., purchaser account records) may include personalinformation relating to acquisition entities associated with theworkflow management system 101.

Account system 203 may further maintain information relating topurchases made by respective acquisition entities and/or rebates earnedby those acquisition entities. Account system 203 may store and/orretrieve such acquisition entity account data using account database205. Account database 205 may be local to workflow management system 101and/or located externally and connected via one or more networks. Theaccount database 205 may be configured in any of the various waysdescribed above with respect to promotion database 204, or in anothermanner, and account database 205 may be configured in the same manner orin a different manner with respect to promotion database 204.

The workflow management system 101 may be a general purpose computerusing one or more microprocessors, such as, for example, an Intel®Pentium® processor, an Intel® Pentium® II processor, an Intel® Pentium®Pro processor, an Intel® Pentium® IV processor, an Intel® Pentium® Dprocessor, an Intel® Core™ processor, an xx86 processor, an 8051processor, a MIPS processor, a Power PC processor, a SPARC processor, anAlpha processor, and so forth. The computer may run a variety ofoperating systems that perform standard operating system functions suchas, for example, opening, reading, writing, and closing a file. It isrecognized that other operating systems may be used, such as, forexample, Microsoft® Windows® 3.X, Microsoft® Windows 98, Microsoft®Windows® 2000, Microsoft® Windows® NT, Microsoft® Windows® CE,Microsoft® Windows® ME, Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows® 7, Palm PilotOS, Apple® MacOS®, Disk Operating System (DOS), UNIX, IRIX, Solaris,SunOS, FreeBSD, Linux®, or IBM® OS/2® operating systems. In otherembodiments, the workflow management system 101 may be controlled by aproprietary operating system. Conventional operating systems control andschedule computer processes for execution, perform memory management,provide file system, networking, I/O services, and provide a userinterface, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), among otherthings.

The workflow management system 101 may include one or more centralprocessing units (“CPU”) 206, which may each include one or moreconventional or proprietary microprocessor(s). The workflow managementsystem 101 may further include one or more memories 207, such as randomaccess memory (“RAM”), for temporary storage of information, read onlymemory (“ROM”) for permanent storage of information, and/or a massstorage device 208, such as a hard drive, diskette, or optical mediastorage device. The memory 207 may store software code, or instructions,for execution by the processor 206 in order to cause the computingdevice to perform certain operations, such as gathering sensor-relateddata, processing the data with statistical and/or predictive models,formatting data for user devices or other presentation, transmittingdata, or other operations described or used herein.

The methods described and claimed herein may be performed by anysuitable computing device, such as the workflow management system 101.The methods may be executed on such suitable computing devices inresponse to execution of software instructions or other executable coderead from a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium or computerstorage device. A computer readable medium is a data storage device thatcan store data that is readable by a computer system. Examples ofcomputer readable mediums include read-only memory, random-accessmemory, other volatile or non-volatile memory devices, CD-ROMs, magnetictape, flash drives, and optical data storage devices.

The workflow management system 101 may include one or more input/output(I/O) devices and interfaces 209, such as a keyboard, trackball, mouse,drawing tablet, joystick, game controller, touchscreen (e.g., capacitiveor resistive touchscreen), touchpad, accelerometer, and/or printer, forexample. The workflow management system 101 may also include one or moremultimedia devices 210, such as a display device (also referred toherein as a display screen), which may also be one of the I/O devices209 in the case of a touchscreen, for example. Display devices mayinclude LCD, OLED, or other thin screen display surfaces, a monitor,television, projector, or any other device that visually depicts userinterfaces and data to reviewing entities. The workflow managementsystem 101 may also include one or more multimedia devices, such asspeakers, video cards, graphics accelerators, and microphones, forexample.

In the embodiment, the I/O devices and interfaces 209 provide acommunication interface to various external devices via a network suchas network 101 of FIG. 1. For example, the workflow management system101 may be electronically coupled to the network 101 via a wired,wireless, or combination of wired and wireless, communication link(s).The network 101 may allow communication with various other computingdevices and/or other electronic devices via wired or wirelesscommunication links.

In an embodiment, the workflow management system 101 may include modulesas described above with respect to user interaction system 201,promotion system 202, and account system 203, as well as other modulesor fewer modules. Each of these modules is discussed in further detailbelow. In general, the word “module,” as used herein, refers to logicembodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of softwareinstructions, possibly having entry and exit points, written in anyprogramming language, such as, for example, Java, Python, Perl, Lua, C,C++, C#, Objective C, etc. A software module may be compiled and linkedinto an executable program, installed in a dynamic link library, or maybe written in an interpreted programming language such as, for example,BASIC, Perl, or Python. Software modules may be callable from othermodules or from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response todetected events or interrupts. Software modules configured for executionon computing devices may be provided on a computer readable medium, suchas a compact disc, digital video disc, flash drive, or any othertangible medium. Such software code may be stored, partially or fully,on a memory device of the executing computing device, such as theworkflow management system 101, for execution by the computing device.Hardware modules may be comprised of connected logic units, such asgates and flip-flops, and/or may be comprised of programmable units,such as programmable gate arrays or processors. The modules describedherein are typically implemented as software modules, but may beimplemented in hardware, firmware and/or software. Generally, themodules described herein refer to logical modules that may be combinedwith other modules or divided into sub-modules despite their physicalorganization or storage.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process of providing a rebate promotion, asused in an embodiment. In various embodiments, additional blocks may beincluded, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected orarranged differently from what is shown.

At block 301, a vendor, such as vendor 103, creates a rebate promotionfor one or more products. The rebate promotion may offer, for example,that an acquisition entity who purchases a product may receive a rebateof up to a certain percentage (e.g., of the cost of the product) and/ordollar amount, for example, in exchange for initiating interactions withinformation components of the vendor by promotion reviewing entities106.

At block 302, an acquisition entity, such as acquisition entity 104,buys a product associated with the rebate promotion. The acquisitionentity may then be offered the option to participate in the rebatepromotion. If the acquisition entity signs up for the rebate promotion,then at block 303, the acquisition entity 104 may receive informationcomponents for posting at various locations online. The acquisitionentity 104 may then post the received information components at variouslocations, such as social networks, websites, emails, and/or otherlocations.

At block 304, one or more promotion reviewing entities such as reviewingentity 106 clicks on the information components posted by theacquisition entity 104 at block 303. As a result, at block 305, theacquisition entity may receive a rebate, based on the promotionreviewing entities clicks form block 304 and further based on details ofthe rebate promotion established by the vendor 103, such as a per-clickrebate provided to the acquisition entity 104 in response to each uniquereviewing entity click on information components posted by theacquisition entity 104.

Depending on the promotion parameters of the particular rebatepromotion, various interactions between promotion reviewing entities andposted information components may qualify to provide the acquisitionentity with the rebates at block 305. For example, rather than clickingon a link in the information components, the reviewing entity may berequired to make a purchase of a product, view content such as a video,complete a survey, or the like as indicated in the particular rebatepromotion, in order to receive a rebate. In a further embodiment, arebate may be granted to the acquisition entity when the reviewingentity chooses to participate in the rebate promotion as well, therebycreating a hierarchical rebate scheme.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process of offering promotions, as used in anembodiment. The process may be performed, for example, by workflowmanagement system 101 of FIG. 1. In various embodiments, additionalblocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may beconnected or arranged differently from what is shown.

At block 401, the workflow management system may receive promotionparameters from a vendor for a rebate promotion. The workflow managementsystem may then create and/or store a new rebate promotion. Theappropriate promotion parameters may be stored in promotion database204, for example, through operation of promotion system 202. Thepromotion parameters may include, for example, a maximum rebate (e.g., apercentage of a product purchase price and/or a maximum dollar amount),a quantity of interactions required to reach the maximum rebate,interactions that qualify for payment of at least a portion of themaximum rebate, information on various formats of information componentsto provide to acquisition entities (such as text, images, audio, video,and/or other media), and/or other data that is used by the workflowmanagement system to manage the rebate promotion.

At block 402, the workflow management system may receive an indicationof a purchase of a product associated with the rebate promotion createdat block 401. The received indication may originate from an acquisitionentity of the product and/or from the vendor selling the product. Invarious embodiments, the indication may relate to a transaction otherthan a purchase of a product such as the purchase of a service. Inresponse to receiving this indication, at block 403, the workflowmanagement system may create an account for the acquisition entity (ifan account does not already exist) and associates that account with thepurchase or other transaction. In an embodiment, the workflow managementsystem may determine that the acquisition entity has an existing accountand may thus associate the purchase or other transaction with thatexisting account.

At block 404, the workflow management system may provide informationcomponents to the acquisition entity. The information components may beprovided to the acquisition entity by being directly sent to theacquisition entity and/or by being automatically posted to third partylocations such as social networking sites either automatically or at therequest of the acquisition entity. The information components may be invarious formats that are suitable for different delivery channels, suchas a first information components formatted for delivery via email and asecond information components formatted for posting on a microblog. Insome embodiments, the acquisition entity is provided an opportunity toinclude a personal endorsement of the product for inclusion in theinformation components generated by the workflow management system.

The workflow management system may be configured to monitor clicksand/or other appropriate transactions relating to the informationcomponents. For example, a link in the information components may bedirected to the workflow management system or associated computingsystem. Additionally or alternatively, the workflow management systemmay be configured to monitor activity on the locations to which theinformation components was posted, locations linked by the informationcomponents and/or other appropriate locations. Through suchconfiguration, the workflow management system may thus be enabled toidentify the occurrence of appropriate events that entitle theacquisition entity to rebates or other rewards.

At block 405, the workflow management system may award a rebate (e.g., aportion of a maximum rebate offered to a particular acquisition entity)to the acquisition entity. The type and/or quantity of rebate or awardmay be determined based on factors such as the promotion parametersreceived at block 401, the nature of the purchase at block 402, thenature of the acquisition entity, and/or the nature of the interactionwith the information components at block 405. Thus, for example, theacquisition entity may receive a certain rebate each time a reviewingentity clicks on a link in the information components (e.g., until amaximum rebate is reached), and may then receive a larger rebate if thereviewing entity makes a purchase based on the information components.

For example, in certain implementations, a click alert, indicating aclick on information components, may by automatically transmitted to theworkflow management system in response to a reviewing entity clickingthe information components. The click alert may be operable toautomatically activate the account system (or other software) in orderto automatically determine a partitioning of a rebate portion to assignto each of the acquisition entity and/or secondary distributorassociated with the information components. Furthermore, the rebateawards may be automatically communicated, such as in realtime as theyare associated with the database records of the entities, to therespective entities. Such communications may be automaticallytransmitted to the entity (e.g., the acquisition entity and/or thesecondary entity) in one or more modes of communication, such as, forexample, electronic mail, text messaging, and regular postal mail, toname a few. In certain modes of communication to the entity, thecommunication may be configured to automatically operate on the entity'selectronic device. For example, the entity's mobile device may, uponreceipt of the transmitted communication, may activate a softwareapplication installed on the entity's mobile device to deliver thecommunication to the entity (e.g., a SMS viewer or application mayautomatically display information from the communication when receivedby the device or when the device is connected to the internet).Alternatively, the communication may activate a web browser and access aweb site to present the communication to the entity. In another example,a communication may be transmitted to an entity's email account and,when received, automatically cause the entity's device, such as acomputer, tablet, or the like, to display the transmitted communicationor a link to take the entity to a webpage with additional accountinformation.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process of creating a rebate promotion, asused in an embodiment. The process may be performed, for example, atblock 301 of FIG. 3 and/or block 401 of FIG. 4. The process may beperformed, for example, by workflow management system 101 of FIG. 1. Invarious embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks maybe removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

At block 501, the workflow management system receives a request for arebate promotion from a vendor. The request may be transmitted, forexample, through a network request such as an HTTP request. The requestmay be initiated directly by the vendor, by an entity associated withthe vendor, by an operator of the promotion management server at thedirection of a vendor or associated entity, and so on.

At block 502, the workflow management system receives parameters for thepromotion to be created. Such promotion parameters may define the termsand/or scope of the promotion. Various examples of promotion parametersare described throughout the specification. The promotion parameters maybe received simultaneously with the request for the rebate promotion atblock 501 and/or subsequent to the request.

At block 503, the workflow management system receives payment from thevendor. The amount of payment may be determined based on the promotionparameters for the rebate promotion received at block 502. In anembodiment, the amount of the payment received from the vendor serversas a further parameter to the promotion, for example, by limiting thequantity of rebates offered to qualified acquisition entities. Invarious embodiments, the payment may be received at different times. Forexample, payment may be received on a periodic basis, such as a monthlybasis. In various embodiments, the payment may be received before and/orafter rebates have been given to acquisition entities. In an embodiment,the vendor is charged at the time an acquisition entity earns a rebate(for example, at the time a reviewing entity makes clicks on informationcomponents shared by the acquisition entity). In an embodiment, thevendor pre-pays for promotions, for example by maintaining a standingaccount balance with the workflow management system, so no payment needbe deducted at the time of creating a particular promotion. In anembodiment, the timing of payment may be made flexible to accommodatethe needs of various vendors, allowing the vendor to select from one ofvarious payment options.

At block 504, the workflow management system stores appropriatepromotion data based on the promotion parameters received at block 502and/or payment received at block 503. Additionally, at block 505, theworkflow management system may provide code (e.g., installable code) forthe vendor's e-commerce system. Such code may enable the vendor toprovide appropriate user interfaces to allow acquisition entities to benotified of and to enroll in rebate promotions offered by the vendor. Inan embodiment, various installable plug-ins are provided in order toaccommodate a variety of content management or shopping systems. In anembodiment, the code may include client site code, such as JavaScriptcode, and/or server site code.

The code provided at block 505 may include items specific to the rebatepromotion and/or security related items. In an embodiment, the code mayinclude one or more keys such as an API key, a promotion identifier, avendor identifier, and the like. Other security information may includeauthentication credentials and/or cryptographic keys such as publicand/or private keys. Thus, the information provided may enable thevendor, acquisition entities, and/or other entities to uniquely identifythe vendor and/or promotion being offered.

In an embodiment, certain portions of the code are provided at block 505and other portions are provided at different times and/or at differentlocations. For example, in an embodiment, the portions of the codespecific to the rebate promotion are provided at block 505 and thenonspecific portions, such as general code to interface with shoppingcart or CMS software, are provided at a different time and/or location(for example, the nonspecific portions may be made available via anindependent source code repository).

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example data structure of promotiondata, as used in an embodiment. Such a data structure may be used, forexample, at block 504 of FIG. 5. The data structure may be stored, forexample, in promotion database 204 of FIG. 2. The data structure may bestored on computer-readable media such as a hard drive, SSD, tapebackup, distributed storage, cloud storage, and so on, and may bestructured as relational database tables, flat files, C structures,programming language objects, database objects, and the like. In variousembodiments, additional elements may be included, some elements may beremoved, and/or elements may be arranged differently from what is shown.

Promotion data 601 may contain various data elements relating to rebatepromotions. Promotion data 601 may include the same data as promotionparameters received from a vendor (such as those received at block 401of FIG. 4), any subset of the promotion parameters, data derived frompromotion parameters, and/or other data.

Promotion data 601 may include one or more data elements. For example,vendor data 602 may identify the vendor associated with a particularpromotion. Product map 603 may include appropriate data to identifyproducts that qualify for particular rebate promotions. Product map 603may include, in various embodiments and/or situations, a list ofproducts, a list of product categories, identifiers of productattributes, general rules for selecting products, and/or the like. In anembodiment, all products offered by the vendor may be included in apromotion in which case product map 603 may be blank and/or otherwiseidentify all such products.

Rebate parameters 604 may include information relating to the rebates tobe offered with the promotion. Such parameters may be used, for example,to determine the amount of the rebate to be offered. In an embodiment,rebate parameters 604 may include a number of clicks 605 and a maximumrebate 606 which may be a dollar amount and/or percentage. For example,in an embodiment, the number of clicks for a rebate may be set to 10 andthe maximum rebate may be set to 20%. In such an embodiment, anacquisition entity would be able to obtain up to a 20% rebate if 20clicks are made on the information components. If fewer than 20 clicksare made then a smaller rebate may be offered, with the magnitude of therebate being determined by an appropriate formula or calculation.

In an embodiment, the partial rebate is determined by a linearinterpolation based on the number of clicks received. Thus, in theexample provided above, an acquisition entity may receive a 14% rebateif the information components is clicked 7 times. In other embodiments,the partial rebate may be determined by nonlinear formulas to encouragedifferent promotion strategies. For example, in one embodiment, anacquisition entity may receive no rebate for zero to four clicks, a 5%rebate for five to nine clicks, and a 20% rebate for 20 or more clicks.In various embodiments, additional and/or different parameters,different rebate parameters may be used for determining the appropriaterebate. The parameters may include, for example, timing of clicks, typesof individuals clicking, activities performed by promotion reviewingentities (such as product purchases) and the like.

Promotion data 601 may further include limitations on the promotion. Forexample, promotion data 601 may include a maximum total spending amount607 which may be used to limit the number and/or amount of promotionsoffered. The maximum total spending 607 may be a total maximum amount ofspending, a maximum amount of spending per period such as per month, amaximum number of rebates to offer, a maximum number of rebates to offerper period such as per day, and so on. By comparing the number and/oramount of rebates offered by acquisition entities with the maximum totalspending amount 607, the workflow management system may determinewhether or not to offer further rebates to acquisition entities. Forexample, the workflow management system may calculate the total amountof rebates offered within a particular promotion and stop offering therebate promotion if that amount exceeds the maximum total spendingamount 607. In the case where some or all acquisition entities havereceived partial rebates but are still able to continue earning furtherrebates for additional clicks, the workflow management system mayestimate a likely number of clicks to be obtained by those acquisitionentities in order to calculate the current spending amount.

Promotion data 601 may further include one or more time limits 608. Thetime limits may be, for example, a time limit on the overall promotionand/or a time limit for a particular acquisition entity to earn rebates.The latter form of time limits may be useful for example to assist inthe calculation of the total spending for a particular promotion. Forexample, if a time limit of 10 days is set, then an acquisition entitymay receive rebates for up to that 10-day period but may not receiverebates thereafter for the same purchase. During that 10-day period, theworkflow management system may assume that the full rebate and/or apartial rebate may be awarded to that acquisition entity and it may thendisable further rebates due to a maximum total spending limit being hit.However, after that 10 day period, the workflow management system maydetermine that the acquisition entity has not earned the anticipatedfull or partial rebate, so it may be able to offer further rebates toacquisition entities while remaining within the maximum total spendinglimit. Thus, such time limits may enable the workflow management systemto offer a greater number of rebates to acquisition entities withinspecified spending limits.

Promotion data 601 may further include syndication parameters 609. Thesyndication parameters may be used to determine whether syndication ispermitted and/or the parameters for revenue sharing when syndication isused. In an embodiment, syndication parameters 609 include a syndicationsharing percentage that may be used to determine the revenue sharing.Following the example from above, a promotion may offer a 20% rebate forup to 10 clicks on information components posted by the acquisitionentity, such that each click is worth a 2% rebate. The syndicationsharing percentage may be 25%. Thus, when a viewer clicks on informationcomponents shared by a distributor on behalf of an acquisition entitywithin this rebate promotion, the distributor would receive a 0.5%rebate, and the acquisition entity would earn a 1.5% rebate. Syndicationparameters may further include details regarding selection ofdistributors that may be selected for optimizing syndication of apromotion. FIGS. 19-26, discussed in further detail below, describevarious parameters that may be used to payments between distributors andacquisition entities.

In various embodiments, the syndication sharing percentage may be fixedacross some or all rebate promotions, and/or the syndication sharingpercentage may be selected by the vendor creating the rebate promotion.The workflow management system may enable syndication across all rebatepromotions, or vendors may be able to select whether to enablesyndication for particular promotions. Additionally, the revenue sharingfrom syndication between distributors and acquisition entities may be avariable function rather than a fixed percentage.

Also in some embodiments, the revenue shared between a distributor andan acquisition entity may total more or less than the revenue that wouldordinarily have been earned by the acquisition entity alone. Forexample, a rebate promotion such as that described above may provide a2% rebate per click when the information components is shared by anacquisition entity, but when syndicated, the promotion may offer a 0.75%rebate per click to both the acquisition entity and the distributor. Inthis example, syndication of rebates may be discouraged; otherpercentages may be selected to encourage or discourage syndication asdesired by the vendor and/or workflow management system.

Promotion data 601 may further include data relating to the informationcomponents. For example, promotion data 601 may include images,promotional text, videos, audio, hyperlinks to one or more locations,and the like. Such material may be specified by vendors during theprocess of creating promotion data 601.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process of managing a purchase of an itemassociated with a promotion, as used in an embodiment. In an embodiment,the process is performed at blocks 302 and 303 of FIG. 3, and/or blocks402-404 of FIG. 4. In an embodiment, certain blocks of FIG. 7 areperformed by vendor 103 and/or acquisition entity 104 and certain blocksare performed by workflow management system 101. In various embodiments,additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/orblocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown.

At block 701, the vendor processes the purchase of an item on thevendor's site. Processing the purchase of an item may occur at the timewhen the acquisition entity viewed a shopping cart on the vendor'swebsite, provides payment information, receives checkout confirmation,and/or another appropriate time.

At block 702, the vendor gathers purchase information via a scriptand/or other system operated by the vendor. In an embodiment, thepurchase information is gathered by a client side script running on aweb browser of the acquisition entity. The client side script may beincluded as part of a web page and/or other content sent by the vendor,and it may scrape and/or otherwise analyze the page or other content todetermine appropriate information such as items purchased and/or amountsspent. In alternate embodiments, server side code, such as a plug-in,may be operated on the vendor's site or an associated site, toautomatically gather the appropriate purchase information. Such plug-insmay be designed for existing content management systems, shopping cartsystems, database systems and the like. The appropriate purchaseinformation may then be sent via network and/or other means to theworkflow management system.

At block 703, the workflow management system receives information aboutthe purchase. The information may be received in response to a networktransaction sent by the vendor and/or acquisition entity, or theinformation may be received upon the workflow management system sendingan appropriate query to the vendor and/or acquisition entity, forexample, on a periodic basis. The information about the purchase mayinclude information about items purchased and/or amounts spent. Theinformation about the purchase may further include information relatingto a particular promotion. Such information may include, for example, apromotion ID, a vendor ID, an API key, security credentials, and thelike.

At block 704, the workflow management system determines a rebatepromotion for the purchase. The rebate promotion data may be structured,for example, in the form shown in FIG. 6. The determination may beperformed, for example, by promotion system 202 of FIG. 2. In anembodiment, the workflow management system may determine that multiplepromotions are appropriate for a given purchase, for example, when twoitems associated with different promotions are purchased. Upondetermining the appropriate rebate promotion, the workflow managementsystem determines appropriate parameters associated with the promotionand sends those to the vendor and/or acquisition entity. Such parametersmay include, for example, a rebate percentage and/or dollar amountand/or a number of clicks required to obtain the maximum rebate amount.

At block 705, the vendor and/or acquisition entity receives and displaysthe promotion parameter received from the workflow management system. Inan embodiment, the promotion parameters are displayed on the vendor'swebpage. Additionally or alternatively, the promotion parameters may besent to the acquisition entity by email and/or other communication. Theacquisition entity may then be given the option to sign up for thepromotion. In an alternate embodiment, the acquisition entity may beautomatically signed up for the promotion without any requiredinteraction by the acquisition entity.

If the acquisition entity chooses to participate in the promotion, thenat block 706, account information is received for the promotion. Theaccount information may be manually entered by the acquisition entityand/or automatically drawn from the vendor's systems. The accountinformation may be received by the vendor and then transmitted to theworkflow management system, or it may be received directly at theworkflow management system, for example, by a website form submission,as shown in block 707.

At block 708, the workflow management system creates an account for theacquisition entity based on the received account information. If anaccount already existed for the acquisition entity, then that accountmay be used rather than creating a new account. The account isassociated with the promotion to enable the acquisition entity to earnrebates based on that promotion. The workflow management system may thengenerate appropriate information components such as a promotion link.The information components is then sent to the vendor and/or acquisitionentity, for example, it may be displayed on the vendor's website and/orsent to the acquisition entity by email or other communication.

In an embodiment, the promotion link is a short URL link directed to theworkflow management system and/or an associated computer system. Theshort link may include identifiers, for example in the path and/or queryparameters of the URL, that may identify the vendor, rebate promotion,acquisition entity, and/or other relevant information. In an embodiment,the short link may instead include an identifier that links to adatabase record or other record stored in the workflow managementsystem, allowing the system to identify the vendor, rebate promotion,acquisition entity, and/or other relevant information without some orall of that information being directly identified in the short link.

FIG. 8 is a sample user interface enabling an acquisition entity of aproduct on a vendor's website to participate in a rebate promotion, asused in an embodiment. User interface 801 may be, for example, a webpagedisplayed on a web browser operated by the acquisition entity.

User interface 801 may be, in an embodiment, an order confirmation page.In various embodiments, the webpage may be a different webpage at adifferent part of the shopping process, such as a checkout page, ashopping cart page, a payment entry page or the like. Link 802 on theuser interface enables the acquisition entity to participate in therebate promotion by clicking on the link. In various embodiments, ratherthan a clickable link, other user interface elements may be employedsuch as a check box, a touchable button, a slideable button, a textentry field, and so on. The user interface may further indicateinformation relating to the rebate promotion such as text indicating theamount of the rebate.

FIG. 9 is a sample user interface allowing the acquisition entity tosign up for a rebate promotion, as used in an embodiment. The userinterface may include user interface element 901 which may be displayedas a popup window, as an internal frame within a webpage, as a separatewebpage or the like. The interface may include an input controlconfigured to receive acquisition entity information, such as text field902 that is configured to receive the acquisition entity's emailaddress. In an embodiment, the email address may be automatically drawnfrom the vendor's data and/or from another data source so that the emailaddress may be automatically included in text field 902 or otherwiseautomatically provided to the workflow management system. In anembodiment, the user may be able to change the email address throughtext field 902 or other interface elements thereby enabling the user touse different email addresses for the rebate promotion and for thevendor sites. In various embodiments, information different from or inaddition to the email address may be requested by the workflowmanagement system using interface element 901 or another interface.

User interface element 901 may further include information about therebate promotion 903. Such information may include the number of clicksand/or other actions that can earn rebates. It may further include thepercentage and/or dollar amount of the rebate. It may further includeother information about the rebate promotion such as a time limit.Information about the rebate promotion may be displayed directly in userinterface element 901 and/or on a separate page such as a terms andconditions page which may be linked within user interface element 901.

In an embodiment, rather than displaying user interface element 901 orother interface to receive acquisition entity information for a rebatepromotion, the vendor and/or workflow management system may simplyaccept the request to participate in the rebate promotion through aninteraction with interface element 802 of FIG. 8. Thus, for example, thevendor may simply store, in a database, an indication that anacquisition entity has indicated interest in participating in a rebatepromotion. The vendor may then inform the workflow management systemabout the acquisition entity, and/or the workflow management system mayperiodically or otherwise query the vendor for acquisition entities whohave indicated interest in participating in the rebate promotion. Theworkflow management system and/or vendor may then contact theacquisition entity, for example by email, without the need to display aninterface such as user interface element 901. The vendor and/or workflowmanagement system may determine the email address of the acquisitionentity using the vendors existing database records, or from user inputprovided during the shopping cart checkout process.

FIG. 10 is a sample user interface for sharing information components asused in an embodiment. The interface of FIG. 10 may be displayed, forexample, subsequent to the interface shown in FIG. 9. In variousembodiments, the interface may be displayed on the vendor's webpage in apopup window, in a separate window, on a separate webpage, and/or inanother communication such as an email communication. User interfaceelement 1001 may include information relating to the rebate promotionfor which the acquisition entity has signed up. The example userinterface element 1001 includes various buttons 1002 and/or otherinterface elements that enable the acquisition entity to share theinformation components at various locations such as a social network, ablog, and/or emails. In an embodiment, when an acquisition entity clicksor otherwise selects one or more of interface elements 1002, theworkflow management system automatically posts the appropriateinformation components to the selected location. In an embodiment, theinformation components is specifically customized based on the locationto which it will be posted so that, for example, information componentsposted on a social network may be formatted different from informationcomponents sent by email. In an embodiment, the information componentscomprises a link that may be provided directly to the acquisition entityso that it may be posted by the acquisition entity at the acquisitionentity's discretion. In an embodiment, the link or other informationcomponents is not directly provided to the acquisition entity, thusproviding a degree of control over the posting of the informationcomponents. In such an embodiment, the links and/or other informationcomponents may be automatically embedded within the various options.

In an embodiment, when the acquisition entity selects one or more ofinterface elements 1002, the acquisition entity's browser automaticallyexecutes client side code to post the information components to theappropriate location. In such a case, neither the workflow managementsystem nor the vendor needs to communicate with external systems inorder to post the information components.

User interface element 1001 may further include a comment block 1003 sothat the acquisition entity may include a customized comment. In anembodiment, when the acquisition entity provides a customized commentthat comment may be automatically included in the posting of informationcomponents. In various embodiments, the comments provided in block 1003may be formatted appropriately for the location to which the informationcomponents is being posted. The comment block may enable the acquisitionentity to provide customized messages to particular individuals, reviewsof the product, personalized recommendations, and so forth. Suchcomments may thus increase the efficacy of the information components inattracting attention and/or interest by reviewing entities. In variousembodiments, acquisition entity feedback other than or in addition to acomment may be solicited, such as a star rating, a like/dislikeindication, a list of tags, and so on.

User interface element 1001 may further include option 1004 to syndicatethe rebate. This option may be shown based on whether syndication isavailable for the rebate promotion. By selecting option 1004, theworkflow management system or other appropriate system may record theacquisition entity's desire to syndicate the rebate promotion for theacquisition entity. The workflow management system or other appropriatesystem may further perform steps in furtherance of the syndication, suchas notifying potential distributors of the syndicated rebate promotion.The user interface may further identify the revenue sharing scheme forsyndication: user interface element 1001, for example, indicates that25% of the rebate will go to distributors if the rebate promotion issyndicated. Thus, if syndication is indicated (e.g., allowed by thevendor and/or workflow management system), a maximum value increment(e.g., maximum rebate) may be partitioned between the acquisition entityand the secondary entity based on a fractional relationship (e.g.,determined based on a sharing scheme) indicating a first portion of thevalue increment per click associated with the acquisition entity and asecond portion of the value increment per click associated withrespective secondary entities in response to respective clicks oninformation components shared by respective secondary entities.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a process of participating in a promotion, asused in an embodiment. The process may be performed, for example, atblocks 707 and 708 of FIG. 7. The process may be performed, for example,by workflow management system 101 of FIG. 1. In various embodiments,additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/orblocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown.

At block 1101, the workflow management system receives sign-upinformation for a promotion. The sign-up information may includeinformation such as an email address which may be used to identify theacquisition entity who is signing up for the promotion. The sign-upinformation may further include information such as a promotion ID,promotion information, and API key, a vendor ID, other user identifier,identifiers of products purchased, indications of amounts spent, and soon.

At block 1102, the workflow management system determines whether thereceived email address or other user identifier is associated with anexisting account. If so, then at block 1103, the purchase made by theacquisition entity is associated with that identified account.

If the email address is not associated with an existing account, then atblock 1104, a temporary account is created. The temporary accountinformation may be stored, for example, in account database 205 of FIG.2. The purchase may then be associated with this temporary account.Thus, the temporary account may be used to keep track of clicks bypromotion reviewing entities or other transactions that entitle theacquisition entity to a rebate.

At block 1105, a confirmation request is sent to the email addressassociated with the temporary account. The confirmation request mayprovide a link to the acquisition entity enabling the acquisition entityto confirm that the email address is active and that the acquisitionentity wishes to participate in the rebate promotion. The acquisitionentity may then access the provided location and provide accountconfirmation such as a password at block 1106.

Upon receiving the account confirmation at block 1106, the workflowmanagement system may then convert the temporary account to a fullaccount at block 1107. The full account is then associated with thepurchase, thus enabling the acquisition entity to earn rebates throughthe rebate promotion. In an embodiment, the temporary account is set toexpire after a predetermined period, thus ensuring that inactivetemporary accounts are not retained indefinitely. The predeterminedperiod may correspond, for example, to a time limit associated with thepromotion.

FIG. 12 is a user interface for confirming an account with the workflowmanagement system, as used in an embodiment. The interface may bedisplayed, for example, at block 1106 of FIG. 11.

The interface may include box 1201 which requests the acquisition entityto confirm the created rebate promotion account. In order to confirm theaccount in an embodiment, the acquisition entity may provide a passwordin field 1202 or other appropriate information. Such confirmation mayensure that the provided email account is active and that theacquisition entity indeed wishes to participate in the rebate promotion.

The interface may further indicate a percentage or dollar amount of arebate already earned prior to the account being confirmed. As explainedwith regard to FIG. 11, a temporary account may be able to track rebatesearned by the acquisition entity even prior to account confirmation, andthose earned rebates are transferred to the full account upon accountconfirmation. Such a display of the amount of rebate already earned mayassist in incentivizing the acquisition entity to complete theconfirmation process using an interface such as that shown in FIG. 12.

In an embodiment, if the acquisition entity does not confirm the accountwithin a certain period of time, then communications such as emailmessages are sent to the acquisition entity to remind the acquisitionentity of the rebate promotion and optionally to inform the acquisitionentity of the amount of the rebate already earned. Such reminder emailsmay serve to further increase participation among acquisition entitiesin the rebate promotion and to avoid earned rebates from being discardeddue to lack of account confirmation.

FIG. 13 is a user interface of a rebate promotion management console, asused in an embodiment. The rebate management console may includeinformation about ongoing rebate promotions in which an acquisitionentity is participating. The acquisition entity may access the rebatemanagement console, for example, by logging into an appropriate websiteoperated by the workflow management system or associated system.

The rebate management console may identify information such as itemspurchased 1301, store or other entity from which the item was purchased1302, number of clicks by promotion reviewing entities on informationcomponents from the acquisition entity 1303, total number of clicksavailable 1303, percentage of rebate earned 1304, maximum rebatepercentage 1304, dollar amount earned (not shown in this embodiment),maximum rebate dollars (not shown in this embodiment), and/or other suchinformation. The rebate management console may further include optionsenabling the acquisition entity to further post information componentsrelating to particular promotions at various locations such as socialnetworks, blogs, email messages and the like. In an embodiment, wherethe maximum number of clicks has been reached and/or the maximum rebateamount has been earned, the rebate management console may indicate suchand/or prevent further posts of the information components from beingcreated. In an alternate embodiment, the acquisition entity may still beable to post the information components even though the maximum rebatehas been reached with the understanding that clicks by promotionreviewing entities will not earn further rebates.

The rebate management console may further include details relating torebate syndication, in table 1306 and/or elsewhere. The syndicationdetails may be displayed separately, as shown in FIG. 13, or thosedetails may be incorporated with the information relating tonon-syndicated rebates.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 13, the acquisition entity has made apurchase of books and has syndicated the corresponding rebate promotion,which offered a maximum 10% rebate for 20 clicks, as shown in entry1307. One or more distributors have posted the information componentsrelating to this rebate promotion, and they have garnered six clicks, asshown in entry 1308. In this example, 25% of the rebate earned for thosesix clicks is awarded to the distributors, and the balance is awarded tothe acquisition entity. Thus, entry 1309 indicates that the acquisitionentity has earned a 2.25% rebate, and entry 1310 indicates that thedistributors have been awarded a 0.75% rebate.

Different information may be displayed in various embodiments. Forexample, the identities of particular distributors may be displayed orhidden, possibly for privacy concerns. The cash value of rebates may bedisplayed, rather than percentages. The posting options 1305 may beincluded.

The acquisition entity may also earn rebates by posting informationcomponents directly, rather than through a distributor, and receivingclicks on those directly posted information components. Thus, entry 1311shows, following the above example, that there have been four clicks oninformation components directly posted by the acquisition entity,earning the acquisition entity a 2% rebate. The revenue may be entirelyallocated to the acquisition entity since the clicked informationcomponents were directly posted by the acquisition entity.

It is noted that information components may be “directly posted” by anacquisition entity even though those information components may belinked, reposted, or otherwise redistributed by third parties. Forexample, an acquisition entity may post information components on asocial network, and the acquisition entity's friends may repost thosematerials on other social networks. In an embodiment, clicks on thereposted materials are credited to the acquisition entity, so that thefriends are not considered distributors and are not allocated a share ofthe rebate. This may be because the reposted materials include a uniqueidentifier, such as a link URL, associated with the originally postedinformation components. In other embodiments, the third parties whoredistribute information components may be awarded a share of the rebateand/or an additional rebate.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a process of handling clicks on informationcomponents as used in an embodiment. The process may be performed, forexample, at blocks 304 and 305 of FIG. 3, and blocks 404 and 405 of FIG.4. The process may be performed, for example, by workflow managementsystem 101 of FIG. 1. In various embodiments, additional blocks may beincluded, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected orarranged differently from what is shown.

At block 1401, the workflow management system receives a click on a linkin information components. The click may be received, for example,through an HTTP and/or other request directed to the workflow managementsystem and/or an associated computer system. In various embodiments,other activities other than clicks on information components may bemonitored such as product purchases, video views, survey completions,and so on.

In an embodiment, the workflow management system may determineinformation based on the click received at block 1401. Such informationmay include, for example, the identity of the vendor acquisition entityand/or rebate promotion associated with the click. In an embodiment, thedetermination of any one or more of these identities may be made basedon information included with the click such as URL query parameters. Inan embodiment, the information may be determined based on the URL of therequest made by the click. The URL may be associated within the workflowmanagement system with a database record identifying the rebatepromotion, the vendor, and/or the acquisition entity. Based on thisinformation, the workflow management system may credit the appropriateacquisition entity for the click.

At block 1402, the workflow management system may determine whether ornot the click or other transaction is legitimate. Such a determinationmay be made using various information about the click such as the timingof the click, the address from which the click originated, the relationof the click to other clicks, and so on. The determination may be madeusing a variety of techniques such as statistical modeling, Bayesiananalysis, spam filtering, behavioral analysis, and so on. If the clickis not legitimate, then at block 1404, it may be discarded. In anembodiment, the determination of whether or not a click is legitimatemay be made at a later time such as on a periodic basis. In such a case,rebates may be retracted as a result of a later determination that aclick is not legitimate. In an alternate embodiment, clicks may be heldin a pending state until the determination has been made. In someembodiments, records may be kept of clicks that are discarded or notconsidered legitimate, along with one or more reasons as to why theclick was not considered to be legitimate. A variety of rules orcriteria may be used to determine that a click is illegitimate. Forexample, when a click is received, attributes such as a source of theclick (e.g., an IP address, domain, and/or geographical location), abrowser associated with the click, a time of the click, and/or the like,may be determined. These attributes or combinations of attributes may beused to determine whether or not a click is legitimate.

In some embodiments, the source of the click may be checked against ablacklist containing known sources of illegitimate clicks, wherein theclick will be considered illegitimate if the source is found on theblacklist. In some embodiments, the relation of the click to otherclicks may also be considered. For example, if a large number of clicksare received within a relatively short time period, the clicks may beconsidered to be illegitimate. In some embodiments, these clicks may berequired to originate from the same source or similar sources in orderto be determined illegitimate. In some embodiments, additional clicksoriginating from sources that have already clicked on the informationcomponents may be considered illegitimate for rebate promotion purposes.

At block 1403, the workflow management system determines whether amaximum number of clicks for the promotion has been exceeded. Forexample, if a rebate promotion specifies that an acquisition entity mayearn rebates for up to 20 clicks, then the workflow management systemmay determine at block 1403 whether the acquisition entity associatedwith a particular click has already been credited for that number ofclicks on the information components. Additionally or alternatively, theworkflow management system may further conduct other tests to determinewhether or not the click should result in the acquisition entity beingcredited with a rebate. For example, the workflow management system maydetermine whether a time limit for the promotion has expired. If theconditions are not met, then at block 1404, the click may be discarded.

At block 1405, the workflow management system records the click in theacquisition entity's account. At block 1406, the appropriate revenue iscalculated and added to the acquisition entity's account. Thecalculation of the revenue to be added may be based on the appropriaterebate parameters or other promotion data as shown in FIG. 6.

In an embodiment, the amount of revenue added to the acquisitionentity's account is based on the promotion data for the appropriaterebate promotion and, in particular, based on a linear interpolationcalculated from the maximum rebate and the number of clicks associatedwith the promotion. For example, the revenue added to the acquisitionentity's account may be calculated based on the maximum rebatepercentage for the promotion divided by the number of clicks andmultiplied by the purchase amount.

In various embodiments, depending on the particular rebate promotion,other methods of calculation may be used. For example, a nonlinearrebate scheme such as a quadratic rebate scheme may be used so thatearlier clicks earn smaller revenue while later clicks earn greaterrevenue. Alternately, a scheme such as a logarithmic scheme may be usedso that earlier clicks earn more revenue while later clicks earn lessrevenue. Regardless of the form of calculation, the rebate amount may becalibrated such that the total rebate does not exceed the maximumrebate.

At block 1406 the workflow management system may further determinewhether the click received at block 1401 originated from syndicatedinformation components. The workflow management system may make thisdetermination, and further determine the identity of the distributor whodistributed the syndicated information components, based on the URLquery parameters and/or other information as described above. If theclick did originate from a distributor, then the workflow managementsystem may allocate revenue (e.g., may partition a maximum valueincrement) between the acquisition entity and the secondary entity basedon the revenue sharing scheme (e.g., a partition parameter) forsyndication of the rebate promotion.

In an embodiment, regardless of whether or not the click is discarded orcredited to the acquisition entity's account, the workflow managementsystem redirects the reviewing entity who initially clicked on theinformation components to a linked page. The linked page may be definedas part of the promotion data and may direct the reviewing entity to thevendor or to another appropriate location. The redirect may be performedusing an HTTP redirect message such as a 30× HTTP response. In analternate embodiment, rather than redirecting the reviewing entity to alinked page, the workflow management system may respond to the reviewingentity by directly sending content associated with the rebate promotion.

At block 1408, the workflow management system optionally monitorsactivity on the linked page or other content to which the reviewingentity was directed at block 1407. In an embodiment, the activitymonitoring is performed using client side and/or server side codeincluded on the vendor's site or other site appropriate for the linkedpage. Such activity monitoring may provide statistics and/or otherinformation indicative of the effectiveness of the rebate promotionand/or advertising campaigns which may be collected by the workflowmanagement system to be provided to the vendor and/or other appropriateentity immediately and/or at a later time.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a process of syndicating a rebate promotion,as used in an embodiment. The process may be performed, for example, byworkflow management system 101 of FIG. 1. The process may be performedas part or all of the processes described with respect to FIGS. 3-4. Invarious embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks maybe removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

In one embodiment, a method of managing distribution of informationcomponents (e.g., promotional materials or the like, as discussedherein) among multiple network accessible databases (e.g., social mediasites or the like, as discussed herein) and by multiple entities (e.g.,a purchaser, a previous purchaser, a distributor, or the like, asdiscussed herein) comprises creating an association in a managementdatabase (e.g., in a promotion instance data item such as in FIG. 16, orany other association stored in the promotion database 204, accountdatabase 205, or other data structure) between an acquisition entityrecord (e.g., a purchaser account record) and an acquisition from avendor (e.g., a purchase from a merchant), wherein the association iscreated by the workflow management computer. In one embodiment, themethod includes determining, by the workflow management computer system,a maximum value increment (e.g., a maximum rebate) amount determinedbased on the acquisition, wherein the maximum value increment ispartitionable between the acquisition entity and one or more secondaryentities (e.g., the maximum rebate is eligible to be split betweenpurchaser and one or more distributors). In some embodiments, theworkflow management system evaluates a secondary entity selection model(e.g., distributor selection criteria, rules, models, or the like, asdiscussed herein), by the workflow management computer system, toidentify one or more secondary entities (e.g., distributors of thepromotional material or the like, as discussed herein) by: parsing themanagement database to identify a set of previous acquisition entitiesassociated with the vendor (e.g., identifying previous purchasers fromthe vendor), parsing the management database to determine a first subsetof the set of previous acquisition entities that were previouslyassociated with a value increment (e.g., identifying previous purchasersthat were awarded a rebate based on those previous purchases), andevaluating parameters in the management database of each of the firstsubset of previous acquisition entities according to one or morecriteria of the secondary entity selection model (e.g., applyingdistributor selection rules). In some embodiments, the one or morecriteria may include one or more of: a raw number of clicks oninformation components shared by the previous acquisition entity inconnection with a previously claimed value increment (e.g., clicks onpromotional material), a ratio of a number of legitimate clicks and theraw number of clicks, a value increment per click associated withpreviously shared information components by the previous acquisitionentity in connection with the previously claimed value increment (e.g.,a rebate per click for a previous purchase), or a total amount of valueincrements outstanding associated with the previous acquisition entity(e.g., a total rebate amount outstanding to the previouspurchasers/potential distributor). In some embodiments, the workflowmanagement system, based on the evaluation, designates one or more ofthe previous acquisition entities of the first subset of previousacquisition entities as the one or more secondary entities (e.g.,identifies distributor(s) for the purchase). In some embodiments, theworkflow management computer system determines a value increment perclick assigned to each of a predetermined quantity of clicks on firstinformation components shared by the acquisition entity by respectivereviewing entities (e.g., a “rebate-per-click” or the like, as discussedherein) and a fractional relationship indicating a first portion of thevalue increment per click associated with the acquisition entity and asecond portion of the value increment per click associated withrespective secondary entities in response to respective clicks on secondinformation components shared by respective secondary entities byreviewing entities (a rebate allocation between the purchaser and thedistributor). In some embodiments, the workflow management computersystem receives indications that a viewing entity has clicked on secondinformation components posted by a first secondary entity (e.g.,promotional information posted by a distributor), and, in response todetermining that the maximum value increment amount has not been reached(e.g., the maximum rebate about has not been reached), based on thefractional relationship (e.g., the rebate allocation), incrementing avalue parameter of the acquisition entity record in the managementdatabase the first portion of the value increment per click (e.g.,awarding a monetary partial rebate to the purchaser's account), andincrementing a value parameter of a first secondary entity record in themanagement database the second portion of the value increment per click(e.g., awarding a monetary partial rebate to the distributor's account).

With reference to the specific example of FIG. 15, at block 1501, thesystem receives purchase information relating to a purchase from avendor eligible for a rebate promotion. This process may be thatpreviously described with respect to block 402 of FIG. 4, for example.The associated rebate promotion may permit for syndication of the rebatepromotion, so that parties other than the acquisition entity, such asdistributors 107 of FIG. 1, may post information components and receiveportions of the associated rebate.

At block 1502, the system determines a syndication offer, which may beincluded as part of the rebate promotion offer. The syndication offermay include a percentage of the rebate that will be given todistributors who successfully distribute the information components andreceive clicks on those information components. The syndication offermay be a fixed percentage set by the system, such as 25%, and/or apercentage chosen by the vendor offering the rebate promotion. Asdescribed previously, the rebate sharing scheme may involve calculationsother than a fixed percentage allocation. The acquisition entity maythen be informed as to the syndication offer, through a user interface,email, and/or other communication.

The acquisition entity may then accept the syndication offer orotherwise request syndication at block 1503. The request for syndicationmay be recorded in the acquisition entity's account, which may be atemporary account as described above. At block 1504, potentialdistributors may be notified of the syndication of the rebate promotionby the acquisition entity, so that those potential distributors may postthe appropriate information components.

The potential distributors at block 1504 may be limited in various ways.In an embodiment, a distributor of a particular syndicated rebatepromotion must have previously purchased the same product as theacquisition entity. Alternately, distributors may be limited to thosewho previously purchased similar products, who purchased products fromthe same vendor, who purchased products within the same rebatepromotion, and/or the like. Such limitations may ensure that thedistributors of syndicated information components have appropriateconnections to the rebate promotion, providing the credibilityenhancements described previously. The system may also limitdistributors based on selections by the acquisition entity, reputationsof the distributors (as calculated, for example, by past informationcomponents posting history), demographic and/or personal factors (forexample, distributors similar to the acquisition entity), and so on.Some example methods and parameters for determining potentialdistributors are described in additional detail below, FIGS. 19-26.

Potential distributors may be notified at block 1504 by variousmechanisms. In one embodiment, the system may provide a distributor witha user interface such as a web page or mobile device content,identifying syndicated rebate promotions available to the distributor.The potential distributors may additionally or alternatively be notifiedby push notifications, emails, text messages, mobile applicationnotifications, and the like. The system may selectively notifydistributors of, and/or display to distributors, available syndicatedrebate promotions based on the distributor limitations describedpreviously, so that only those distributors eligible to participate inthe syndicated rebate promotion are made aware of the promotion.

At block 1505, the system receives a request from a distributor to postsyndicated information components. The request may be, for example, arequest to post the information components on a social networking siteor other site, a request to email or message others with the informationcomponents, and/or other type of request. The requests may be analogousto those made by acquisition entities who wish to post informationcomponents directly, and they may be made on a user interface similar tothat shown at interface elements 1002 in FIG. 10.

In response, the system may then post the syndicated informationcomponents for the distributor, at block 1506. The posting process maybe similar to that described with respect to interface elements 1002. Asdescribed previously, the posted materials may include an identifier,such as a URL query parameter, to associate the posted materials withthe acquisition entity and/or the rebate promotion. In the case that theinformation components are syndicated and posted by a distributor ratherthan by the acquisition entity, the identifier may further be associatedwith the distributor, so that the distributor may be appropriatelyidentified and credited when reviewing entities interact with theinformation components. The system may additionally or alternativelymake information components directly available to distributors and/orother entities, so that those entities may post the informationcomponents directly rather than requesting the system to do so at block1505.

At block 1507, the system detects a click or other appropriateinteraction with the information components posted at block 1506. Inresponse, the system may identify the acquisition entity, rebatepromotion, and/or distributor associated with the informationcomponents, and the acquisition entity and/or distributor may becredited with a partial or full rebate at block 1508. The process ofdetecting the interaction and crediting accounts may be similar to thatdescribed previously with respect to FIG. 14.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a data structure of a promotion instance,as used in an embodiment. A “promotion instance” may be a representationof a particular instance of a rebate promotion in which an acquisitionentity is engaged. The promotion instance data may be created and/orstored, for example, at the time that an acquisition entity agrees toparticipate in a rebate promotion, and the data may maintain the statusof that acquisition entity's participation in the promotion. The datastructure may be stored on computer-readable media such as a hard drive,SSD, tape backup, distributed storage, cloud storage, and so on, and maybe structured as relational database tables, flat files, C structures,programming language objects, database objects, and the like. In variousembodiments, additional elements may be included, some elements may beremoved, and/or elements may be arranged differently from what is shown.

Promotion instance 1601 may include references to an acquisition entityaccount 1602 and a rebate promotion 1603, the latter of which mayreference a data structure such as that shown in FIG. 6. The referenceto the acquisition entity account 1602 may be a reference to a temporaryor permanent account, as described above. The promotion instance 1601may further include purchase data 1604, which may include the itemspurchased, the purchase amount, the rebate-eligible purchase amount, themaximum rebate amount, and the like. The reference to the rebatepromotion 1603 and/or the purchase data 1604 may be used to calculatethe awarded rebate amounts.

In an embodiment, rebate promotion data 1603 may be copied intopromotion instance data 1601 rather than being linked or referenced, sothat changes to the overall rebate promotion parameters do not affectpromotion instances that are ongoing. For example, an acquisition entitymay be offered a 10% rebate, and subsequently the vendor may change therebate promotion to only offer a 5% rebate, so the original 10% rebatevalue may be copied into the acquisition entity's promotion instancedata so that the acquisition entity continues to receive the original10% rebate. In alternate embodiments, the rebate offered to theacquisition entity may be changed after the fact, or rebate promotionsmay be made unalterable (so that the vendor would have to discontinuethe 10% promotion and create a new 5% promotion in order to achieve theabove change).

Promotion instance data 1601 may also include records 1605 of clicks orother interactions with promotional data. These records may be used todetermine the partial rebate to be awarded the acquisition entity. Therecords may include a count of clicks or other interactions, and/or theymay include specific information about each click or interaction. Thelatter form of records may enable determinations of legitimacy ofclicks, for example.

As described previously, the acquisition entity may, in an embodiment,be given the option to syndicate a particular rebate promotion. If theacquisition entity chooses to syndicate, this choice may be stored inthe acquisition entity's promotion instance data 1601, for example inflag 1606. Thus, in an embodiment, some acquisition entities may chooseto syndicate, while other acquisition entities may choose not tosyndicate, perhaps because those acquisition entities are more confidentin their abilities to generate clicks or other transactions.

The promotion instance data 1601 may optionally include indications orreferences to syndication distributors 1607. This may be used toidentify rules for selection of permitted secondary entities(“distributors”) and/or indications of specific permitted (or notpermitted) distributors of syndicated information components, asidentified by the system and/or selected by the acquisition entity.Alternately, the system may determine permitted distributorsautomatically, so that the list of permitted distributors need not bestored in promotion instance data 1601. The promotion instance data mayfurther identify those distributors who have generated successful clicksor interactions by posting syndicated information components, so thatthose distributors may be credited appropriately.

Promotion instance data 1601 may further include link identifiers 1608and/or other identifiers. These identifiers may be correlated orotherwise associated with identifiers in information components, such asURL query parameters and/or short URL links, so that clicks orinteractions with those posted information components can be traced backto the promotion instance and then to the acquisition entity and rebatepromotion. In the case that an acquisition entity chooses to syndicate arebate promotion, multiple identifiers 1608 may be included, so that thedistributors posting syndicated information components may bedifferentiated when those syndicated information components are clickedor otherwise interacted with.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a process of allocating rebates, as used in anembodiment. The process may be used, for example, within the processdescribed with respect to FIG. 14. The process may be performed, forexample, by workflow management system 101 of FIG. 1. In variousembodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may beremoved, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

At block 1701, the system detects a click or other interaction withinformation components. The system may then determine whether there areremaining rebate-eligible clicks for the promotion instance associatedwith the clicked information components. The determination may be basedon, for example, data element 1605 of FIG. 16. The determination may besimilar to (and part or all of) the process described with respect toblock 1403 of FIG. 14. If no eligible clicks remain, then at block 1703no rebate is awarded.

At block 1074 and 1705, the system determines the purchase amount andrebate percentage, as well as other parameters as needed to calculatethe rebate to be awarded for the detected click or interaction. Thecalculation may be similar to that described with respect to block 1406of FIG. 14.

At block 1706, the system then may determine whether the click orinteraction detected at block 1701 was associated with informationcomponents that were syndicated and posted by a secondary entity ratherthan the acquisition entity. If the information components were postedby the acquisition entity, then at block 1707 the acquisition entity isawarded the full rebate due for the detected click or interaction.

If, on the other hand, the system determines that the click orinteraction was on information components posted by a secondary entity,then at block 1708 the system may assess a rebate due to both theoriginal acquisition entity and the secondary entity. In an embodiment,at block 1708, the system determines the overall rebate to be awardedfor the click or interaction (for example, based on the purchase price,number of clicks, maximum rebate percentage, and so on) as describedpreviously, and then the system allocates the calculated rebate amountbetween the distributor and the acquisition entity based on a rebatesharing percentage or formula, as described previously with respect tosyndication parameters 609 of FIG. 6. The calculated rebates may then beawarded to the acquisition entity and distributor at blocks 1709 and1710.

Selecting Potential Distributors

As stated above, various methods may be used when determining potentialsecondary entities to use when syndicating a rebate promotion. Forexample, selection of secondary entities is mentioned above in referenceto FIG. 15. In some embodiments, potential distributors comprisecustomers or acquisition entities who have participated in rebatepromotions in the past. It may be found that different participants ofpast rebate promotions may have had different success rates when sharinginformation components, measured by various factors such as number ofclicks resulting from shares, number of legitimate clicks, ratio oftotal number of clicks to number of legitimate clicks, etc. In addition,different participants may be associated with different costs (e.g.,price per share or price per click that the potential distributors arewilling to accept). Thus, when selecting potential distributors, it isoften desired to be able to select potential distributors with the mostoptimized balance between cost and sharing effectiveness.

FIG. 18 illustrates a table containing data associated with acquisitionentities that have participated in a rebate promotion, and that may beidentified as potential distributors for future rebate promotions, inaccordance with some embodiments. The table, which may be part of amanagement databases maintained by the workflow management system 101,contains data for a plurality of acquisition entities, including a firstacquisition entity 1802, second acquisition entity 1804, thirdacquisition entity 1806, and fourth acquisition entity 1808 that haveparticipated in a rebate promotion (e.g., the 8% furniture.com rebateillustrated in FIG. 13 at 1304). The various data included in theexample of FIG. 18 may be used in selecting a distributor for aparticular rebate syndication, such as discussed with reference to thefigures below. For example, in some embodiments the initialqualification criteria for potential distributors is that the individual(or other entity) must have previously purchased a product from thevendor/advertiser that is providing the rebate promotion. In someembodiments, potential distributors are not required to purchase thesame product or even a similar product, but are only required to havemade a purchase at the vendor/advertiser that is providing theparticular rebate promotion for which distributors are being identified.In other embodiments, other rules for previous purchase requirements maybe used to initially identify potential distributors for a particularrebate promotion.

In some embodiments, data associated with each rebate promotion may bestored with a different table or data structure, while in otherembodiments, data for different rebate promotions may be combined in asingle table or data structure. In addition, in some embodiments datafor an acquisition entity that has participated in multiple rebatepromotions may be combined or aggregated to form an overall data profilefor that acquisition entity.

The data for the acquisition entities may be organized as a plurality ofcolumns (e.g., columns 1810-1828). It is understood that the particularcolumns of the illustrated table are shown for purpose of example, andthat in other embodiments, different columns corresponding to differenttypes of data, or different combinations of columns, may be usedinstead. In addition, in some embodiments, acquisition entity data maybe organized or displayed using other formats or data structures. Forexample, a columnar data structure, such as is illustrated in FIG. 18,may be referred to generally as a “database,” which may refer to adatabase (e.g., RDBMS or SQL database), or may refer to any other datastructure, such as, for example a comma separated values (CSV),eXtendible markup language (XML), TeXT (TXT) file, flat file,spreadsheet file, and/or any other widely used or proprietary format.

Column 1810 comprises data identifying the particular acquisitionentity. In the illustrated figure, each acquisition entity is identifiedusing an email address. In some embodiments, other information (e.g., anacquisition entity ID) may be used to identify the acquisition entity.In addition, other acquisition entity data, such as acquisition entityname, type (e.g., individual or corporate), location, etc. may also bestored and associated with an acquisition entity. In some embodiments,the identifier (e.g., email address or acquisition entity ID) may beused to access additional acquisition entity data that is stored in aseparate acquisition entity table or data structure.

At column 1812, the vendor or advertiser that the acquisition entity haspurchased from, and is associated with the rebate promotion for, isspecified. In some embodiments, only acquisition entities that haveparticipated in a rebate promotion before can be considered eligible forbeing a potential distributor for future syndicated rebate promotions.In some embodiments, additional information, such as the specificproduct(s) purchased from the vendor, quantity of product purchased,purchase price, and/or the like may also be used as requirements forconsideration as a distributor.

At column 1814, an indication by be given as to a current status of therebate promotion with regards to the particular acquisition entity. Forexample, a status of “paid” indicates that a particular acquisitionentity has been fully paid with regards to a rebate promotion that theyhave participated in. On the other hand, an “active” status may indicatethat the acquisition entity has not yet received a full payment for therebate promotion. In other embodiments, different types of statuses maybe used. For example, in some embodiments, a status may indicate that atime period during which clicks may be counted for purposes of therebate promotion has not yet expired, that the time period has not yetexpired but that a maximum number of clicks has already been reached,that the time period has expired but a full payment has not yet beenrendered, and/or the like.

At column 1816, data on a number of clicks associated with a rebatepromotion that the acquisition entity has participated in may beindicated. For example, a total number of clicks may be counted anddisplayed next to a total number of legitimate clicks (e.g., asdetermined at block 1402 in FIG. 14) to form a “total clicks ratio.” Forexample, with reference to customer 1802, the total number of clicks isindicated as “9”, while the number of legitimate clicks (of those 9clicks) is only “5”. This information regarding total clicks andlegitimate clicks may then be used to calculate “a gross click purity”at column 1818, which may be calculated as a percentage of legitimateclicks to total clicks. For example, first acquisition entity 1802 had 9total clicks as a result of his or her sharing associated with therebate promotion, with 5 of those clicks being determined to belegitimate, and thus has a gross click purity of 55.56% (legitimateclicks divided by total clicks=5/9=55.56%). On the other hand, secondacquisition entity 1804 had a total of 22 clicks as a result of his orher sharing, but with only 6 of those clicks being consideredlegitimate, a gross click purity is only 27.27% (6/22=27.27%). In someembodiments, click-related data for the acquisition entity may bedivided between one or more different subcategories, such as socialnetwork or sharing channel. For example, a particular acquisition entitymay share information components for the rebate promotion on Facebookand on a blog. Click data for the information components shared througheach channel may be tracked separately and displayed in separate columnsor rows in the table.

In some embodiments, a rebate promotion defines multiple actions thatresult in payments to a distributor. For example, a particular rebatepromotion may provide an initial payment to an acquisition entity (alsoreferred to as an incentive, illustrated at column 1820) when theacquisition entity initially shares information components associatedwith the rebate promotion on a social network, as well as a click valueindicating a payment for each click that results from the sharedmaterial (illustrated at column 1822). In some embodiments, theincentive will only be paid if the acquisition entity shared theinformation components publically on a social network (e.g., a publicFacebook post or a public blog post). On the other hand, if theacquisition entity chooses to not share information componentsassociated with the rebate promotion publically (e.g., through a privatepost on a social network only viewable by friends or connections of theacquisition entity on the social network), then the acquisition entitydoes not receive the incentive amount, but may still receive click valuefrom clicks resulting from the shared material.

A rebate promotion may also be associated with a total rebate amount(illustrated at column 1824), specifying a maximum rebate amount thatcan be obtained by the acquisition entity. In some embodiments, thetotal rebate amount for a rebate promotion corresponds to a sum of theincentive for the rebate promotion (e.g., paid to the distributor whenthe information components are initially posted, perhaps in accordancewith defined posting requirements) and the click value of the promotion(e.g., amount paid for each legitimate click) times a maximum number ofallowed clicks. For example, the calculation may be expressed as:Total available rebate amount=total incentive+(click value×maximumclicks).

In some embodiments, if a rebate promotion time period has completed(e.g., reached the maximum number of allowed clicks for the promotion)or expired (e.g., the time period for which to receive clicks hasexpired), the total rebate amount for the promotion may simply be therebate amount earned by the acquisition entity at the time of completionor expiration.

In addition, it is understood that in other embodiments, differentmethods for calculating a total rebate amount may be used. For example,other factors, such as purchase conversions, may also be included whencalculating a total rebate amount. A particular rebate promotion mayspecify that if an individual or entity clicks on an acquisitionentity's shared material, and then makes a purchase, the acquisitionentity will receive an additional rebate. This may be a fixed or flatamount, based upon an amount of the purchase, based upon an amount ofthe acquisition entity's own previous purchase, and/or the like. In someembodiments, a purchase or order can be associated with a click bytracking an IP address, user agent, and/or API key associated with theclick, and matching it to a subsequent order that occurs within aspecified time period of the click.

In some embodiments, incentive, click value, and/or total rebate may bedetermined as a portion or percentage of purchase price. For example, ifan acquisition entity purchased $1000 in goods from a vendor, and therebate promotion specifies a share incentive of 2% and an additional 1%rebate per click for up to 8 clicks (for a total potential of up to 10%of the purchase price), then the total incentive for the acquisitionentity would be $20, and the click value would be $10/click for a totalclick value (if all 8 clicks are received) of $80.

At column 1826, an earning amount for an acquisition entity isdisplayed, corresponding to a total monetary amount that the acquisitionentity has earned through the rebate promotion thus far. In someembodiments, the earnings amount is calculated as the total incentive(if earned) added to the click value times the current number oflegitimate clicks. For example:earnings=total incentive+(click value×legitimate clicks)

Thus, using the above formula on the data illustrated in FIG. 18, firstacquisition entity 1802 has an incentive of $10.89 and 5 legitimateclicks at a click rate of $6.53 per legitimate click, resulting in totalearnings of $43.58. On the other hand, third acquisition entity 1806 hadan incentive of $3.65 but no legitimate clicks, resulting in totalearnings of $3.65.

In other embodiments, earnings may be calculated in other ways. Forexample, as mentioned above, additional factors such as purchaseconversions may also be considered when calculating an acquisitionentity's earnings for a particular rebate. Different vendors or vendorsmay wish to implement rebates in different ways, in order to meet theirindividual needs and requirements.

At column 1828, a remaining rebate value is displayed, corresponding toa potential monetary value that the acquisition entity has yet to earn(assuming the promotion period has not ended or the distributor isotherwise ineligible to receive additional payments for the rebatepromotion). In some embodiments, this may be calculated as thedifference between the rebate amount (column 1824) and the earningsamount (column 1826), such as using the formula:remaining rebate=rebate amount−earnings

While FIG. 18 illustrates a table of acquisition entities associatedwith a particular rebate promotion, it is understood that in otherembodiments the table may contain data for multiple rebate promotions.In some embodiments, a single acquisition entity may have participatedin multiple rebate promotions. Data for the purchase may be stored asmultiple rows (e.g., one for each rebate promotion participated in)and/or aggregated or combined into a single table row.

FIG. 19 illustrates a flowchart of a process for designating one or moreacquisition entities as potential distributors in accordance with someembodiments. In one embodiment, the method of FIG. 19 may be performedby the workflow management system 101. In other embodiments, anothersuitably configured computing device may perform some or all blocks ofthe described method. Depending on the embodiment, the method of FIG. 19may include fewer or additional blocks and/or the blocks may beperformed in order different than is illustrated.

In some embodiments, as an initial matter an acquisition entity mustfirst satisfy a number of primary distributor criteria in order to beconsidered a potential distributor. For example, in order to be apotential distributor for a particular rebate promotion, the acquisitionentity must have previously purchased a product (block 1902) from thesame vendor/vendor/vendor associated with the rebate promotion (block1904). In addition, the acquisition entity may also be required to haveparticipated or be currently participating in a rebate promotionassociated with the vendor (block 1906). In the embodiment of FIG. 19,if any of the primary distributor criteria are not satisfied (blocks1902, 1904, 1906), then the acquisition entity is not designated aspotential distributor (block 1914). Such limitations may ensure that thedistributors of syndicated information components have appropriateconnections to the rebate promotion, providing the credibilityenhancements described previously.

It is understood that in some embodiments, different primary distributorcriteria or different combinations of primary distributor criteria maybe used. For example, in some embodiments, an acquisition entity musthave purchased the same product associated with the rebate promotion tobe syndicated, a product in a common category as the product associatedwith the rebate promotion, any product from the same vendor, a productin a same cost range or category, etc. An acquisition entity may berequired to have participated in a certain number of prior rebatepromotions associated with a vendor in order to be considered apotential distributor for that vendor. In some embodiments, theacquisition entity must have completed the purchase, or purchases,within a predefined time period, such as one month, three months, oneyear, etc. In some embodiments, individual vendors, vendors, or vendorsare able to configure primary distributor criteria that they wish to usein order to satisfy their specific needs.

At block 1908, if the acquisition entity has satisfied all of theprimary distributor criteria, the acquisition entity may be evaluatedbased upon one or more secondary distributor criteria. In someembodiments, the secondary distributor criteria are processed oraggregated (e.g., as a weighted sum) in order to compute an overallscore (also referred to as a sharer score). For example, a sharer scorecalculated as a weighted sum may be calculated using the followingformula:

${{sharer}\mspace{20mu}{score}} = {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}{w_{i}c_{i}}}$where there are n secondary distributor criteria, with each individualcriteria c_(i) having an associated weight w_(i).

In some embodiments, how the secondary distributor criteria are used tocalculate a sharer scores may be customized based upon the specificneeds of the vendor or vendor. For example, a vendor may access a userinterface containing a plurality of sliders that can be used to setweights for a number of different secondary distributor criteria, whichmay then be aggregated as a weighted sum to produce a sharer score. Inaddition, other types of formulas or calculations may be used whencalculating a sharer score based upon the secondary distributorcriteria.

FIG. 20 illustrates some of the secondary distributor criteria that maybe used in some embodiments. For example, secondary distributor criteriamay include click-related data, such as gross clicks associated withshared information components and/or gross click purity. For instance,high gross click purity may indicate that an acquisition entity is moreeffective at sharing information components. For example, referring toFIG. 18, first acquisition entity 1802 has a relatively high gross clickpurity (55.56%), and thus may be considered a more desirable candidatefor being a potential distributor compared to acquisition entities 1804,1806, and 1808, who have lower gross click purities. On the other hand,for some vendors, a high gross clicks total may also be considereddesirable, even if the gross click purity is low. For example, eventhough fourth acquisition entity 1808 has low gross click purity, theymay still be desirable to use as a distributor due to the high number ofgross clicks that they were able to achieve compared to the otheracquisition entities. Thus, different distribution programs may havevery different secondary distributor criteria and/or differentweightings for respective criteria, such as based on the needs of theparticular vendor.

In some embodiments, gross clicks may be defined as the total number ofclicks on information components shared by the distributor, while grossclick purity may be calculated as:gross click purity=# of legitimate clicks/gross clickswhere whether a click is legitimate is determined by a workflowmanagement system or entity using any of the methods or criteriadescribed above (e.g., as illustrated at block 1402 in FIG. 14). Inother embodiments, gross clicks and/or gross click purity may be definedor determined in other ways or based upon other data. For example, grossclick purity may in some embodiments be based upon a number of clickshaving other characteristics in relation to the total number of clicks(e.g., clicks that resulted in the performance of an action, such assigning up for a mailing list or purchase of a product/service, and/orthe like).

In some embodiments, click-related data for a particular acquisitionentity, such as gross clicks and/or gross click purity, may becalculated based upon all rebate promotions that the acquisition entityhas participated in, or may be restricted based upon time period (e.g.,only rebate promotions participated in the past three months areconsidered), vendor (e.g., only rebate promotions participated in thatare associated with the same vendor are considered), product (e.g., onlyrebate promotions participated in that are associated with the same orsimilar products are considered), and/or the like.

As illustrated in FIG. 20, secondary distributor criteria may alsoinclude cost measures, such as a cost per share (or incentive)associated with the acquisition entity, and/or a cost per click (orclick value) associated with the acquisition entity. In order to keepdown costs, it may be desirable to select potential distributorsassociated with low costs (while still retaining desirablecharacteristics such as high gross click purity). Thus, higher cost pershare and/or cost per click for an acquisition entity may result in alower sharer score. For example, if the sharer score is calculated as aweighted sum, cost measure criteria may be assigned a negative weight,or be expressed as an inverse of the cost, such that a higher cost willresult in a lower sharer score that is indicative of a less desirabledistributor.

In some embodiments, cost per click and/or cost per share can becalculated based upon the past rebate promotions that the acquisitionentity has participated in (e.g., all past promotions participated in,or filtered based upon time period, vendor, product, and/or the like).For instance, cost per click may be calculated as a total monetary valuepaid to the acquisition entity in connection with clicks associated withone or more previous rebate promotions that the acquisition entity hasparticipated in, divided by the number of clicks.

In some embodiments, other information, such as past rebate promotionsthat were offered to, but turned down by the acquisition entity, mayalso be considered. For example, if an acquisition entity hasconsistently agreed to participate in rebate promotions with a clickvalue of $5 or more, but has declined to participate in rebatepromotions with click values of less than $4, then a click value thatthe acquisition entity may be willing to accept can be determined. Insome embodiments, the cost measures may be determined based upon one ormore inputs from the acquisition entity. For example, after anacquisition entity has signed up for a rebate promotion or has completeda rebate promotion, they may be presented with a user interface askingif they would be willing to be a secondary entity (e.g., a distributor)for additional promotions and/or at what price they would be willing bea distributor (illustrated below in FIG. 22).

The secondary distributor criteria may also include whether theacquisition entity has any existing rebates outstanding. For example, insome embodiments, an acquisition entity who currently has a large amountof outstanding existing rebates may be less desirable for sharingadditional information components than an acquisition entity who has nooutstanding existing rebates, in order to avoid overloading an audienceof a particular acquisition entity with too much promotional content atonce. Alternatively, an acquisition entity with a large amount ofoutstanding existing rebates that were recently accepted fordistributorship by the acquisition entity may indicate that theacquisition entity has a high value to other vendors and may potentiallybe a valuable distributor.

In some embodiments, other criteria, such as purchase conversions, mayalso be considered. For example, a purchase or order can be associatedwith a click by tracking an IP address, user agent, and/or API keyassociated with the click and matching it to a subsequent order thatoccurs within a specified time period of the click. By doing so, apurchase conversion rate for an acquisition entity (e.g., how many ofthe clicks associated with the acquisition entity's shared informationcomponents resulted in a purchase or sale) can be calculated. Typically,an acquisition entity having a high purchase conversion rate will bemore desirable as a potential distributor.

In addition, some vendors or venders may also consider geographiclocation when selecting potential distributors. In some embodiments,geographic location may be determined using an IP address of theacquisition entity, acquisition entity-entered information (e.g., on aform when making a purchase or signing up for a rebate promotion),geolocation data of a device used by the acquisition entity (e.g., GPSdata from a mobile device running a distributor application or website),and/or the like. Based upon the acquisition entity's geographiclocation, a geographic proximity between the acquisition entity beingconsidered as a potential distributor and the original acquisitionentity, the original vendor, and/or other branches of the vendor may bedetermined. Thus, while a particular acquisition entity may not be inclose geographic proximity to the original acquisition entity or eventhe original vendor from which the product resulting in the rebate waspurchased, an acquisition entity may still receive a high contributionto his share score if he lives close to another location of the vendor(possibly hundreds or thousands of miles away from the originalacquisition entity). Similar to the other primary and secondarydistributor criteria discussed herein, use of any particular criteriaand weightings associated with those criteria may be customized by eachadvertiser and for each rebate promotion.

In some embodiments, various demographic factors may also be consideredas secondary distributor criteria. For example, when syndicating arebate promotion associated with an original acquisition entity to oneor more distributors, it may be desirable to use distributors that havesimilar demographic characteristics to the original acquisition entity.

The illustrated primary and secondary criteria are provided for purposeof example and not limitation. In various embodiments, differentcriteria, different weightings of criteria, and/or differentcombinations of criteria may be used. In some embodiments, a particularvendor, vendor, or advertiser may select the secondary distributorcriteria that they wish to use for their rebate purchases. In addition,the vendor, vendor, or advertiser may also set weights for the criteriaor otherwise designate how the criteria will be used to calculate asharer score.

In an embodiment, all of the criteria indicated by solid boxes in FIG.20 may be used as a default for selection of a potential distributor(namely, gross clicks, gross click purity, cost per share, cost perclick, and existing rebates outstanding). In another embodiment, theadditional criteria indicated by dashed boxes in FIG. 20 may also beused in the selection of a potential distributor. In another embodiment,any subset of the criteria (both in the solid and dashed boxes) may beused in selection of potential distributors. For example, particularvendors may use different combinations of criteria and weightings ofsuch criteria than other vendors.

For example, a particular vendor may, when calculating a sharer scorefor an acquisition entity, use a weighted sum of gross clicks (weight of1), gross click purity (weight of 20), cost per share (weight of −1),and cost per click (weight of −10). Thus a first acquisition entityhaving 20 gross clicks, a gross click purity of 60%, a cost per share of$5, and a cost per click of $0.20 would have a score of 25(20*1+0.6*20+5*(−1)+0.2*(−10)=25). On the other hand, a secondacquisition entity having 10 gross clicks, a gross click purity of 90%,a cost per share of $3, and a cost per click of $0.5, would have a scoreof 20 (10*1+0.9*20+3*(−1)+0.5*(−10)=20). Thus, based on these examplesharer score attributes and weightings, the first acquisition entitywould be more likely to be chosen as a potential distributor.

In some embodiments, criteria may be further processed or manipulatedwhen calculating a sharer score. For example, a particular vendor mayconfigure a sharer score calculation such that a gross click purity of50% or above contributes 5 points to an acquisition entity's sharerscore, while any gross click purity below 50% contributes no points.

Returning to FIG. 19, once a sharer score for the acquisition entity iscalculated, at block 1910 it is determined if the acquisition entity hasa sharer score that satisfies a particular threshold. If the thresholdis satisfied, then the acquisition entity is designated as a potentialdistributor for the rebate promotion (block 1912). On the other hand, ifthe threshold is not satisfied, then the acquisition entity is notdesignated as a potential distributor (block 1914).

In some embodiments, in addition to identifying potential distributors,an allocation of how the rebate is to be distributed may also bedetermined. This process may be that previously described with respectto block 1708 of FIG. 17. In some embodiments, the allocation may bedetermined by processing and/or aggregating one or more allocationfactors (e.g., as a weighted sum). FIG. 21 illustrates various factorsthat may be used in determining an allocation in accordance with someembodiments, which are discussed further below.

One factor that may be used in determining allocation is the click valueof the rebate to be distributed. For example, if the click value of therebate is $5 per click, then the amount that can be allocated to apotential distributor cannot exceed that amount. In addition, a lowclick value may limit the potential distributors that may be identified,so some distributors may only be willing to share information componentsif the click value is above a certain value.

In addition, one or more inputs from the vendor, original acquisitionentity, and/or potential distributor may be considered when determiningan allocation. For example, the original acquisition entity may be givenan option to raise the distributor allocation when offered the option tosyndicate the promotion to distributors. An original acquisition entitywho has not experienced success with his or her own shares may opt to doso in order to potentially increase the number of clicks, by having theinformation components be distributed by more effective distributors. Aninput may be received from a potential distributor may indicate adesired click value and/or incentive.

Remaining value of the rebate to be distributed may also be a factor.For instance, the rebate amount that can be allocated to distributorsmay be limited by remaining value of the rebate to be distributed. Inaddition, the remaining value of the rebate may also be indicative of aneffectiveness of sharing by the original acquisition entity. Forexample, in some embodiments, if the remaining value of the rebate to bedistributed is large, a higher percentage of the rebate may be allocatedto the distributor. In addition, in some embodiments, a rebate promotionmay only allow rebates for a certain amount of clicks. In these cases,the number of clicks remaining in the rebate promotion may also be afactor when determining an allocation.

Other criteria to be considered may include distributor cost measures(incentive and/or click value), etc. For example, the average incentiveand/or click value paid to the potential distributor in past rebatepromotions they have participated in may be an important factor indetermine how much to allocate to the potential distributor. Forexample, if it is known that the potential distributor has a certaincost at which they are likely willing to share information components(e.g., through analysis of past rebate promotions that the potentialdistributor participated in and declined to participate in), theallocation may be set (e.g., increased or decreased from a defaultallocation) such that it meets (or is close to) that cost, if suchadjustment is in accordance with other allocation criteria.

In some embodiments, a fee to be paid to the workflow management systemmay also be considered when determining an allocation. The workflowmanagement system may collect a fee for each click on informationcomponents shared by an acquisition entity (e.g., a percentage of theclick value). In some embodiments, when a rebate promotion issyndicated, the workflow management system may collect an additional fee(e.g., a flat fee, or an additional percentage of the click value). Inother embodiments, the fee may remain unchanged when a rebate promotionis syndicated to distributors. How the workflow management systemcollects a fee may be different depending on the particular vendor.

In some embodiments, a rebate promotion may be syndicated using multiplepotential distributors. In some embodiments, the click value of therebate promotion may be allocated between the original acquisitionentities and the multiple distributors (e.g., the original acquisitionentity receives 40% after fees, while three distributors each get 20%).In some embodiments, different selected distributors may be allocateddiffering portions of the rebate promotion based on one or more of theallocation criteria described above. For example, a distributordetermined to be more valuable (for example, a distributor having ahigher gross click purity, a higher total number of gross clicks, and/ora higher average click value) may be provided with a larger click valuefor the particular syndicated rebate than another distributor determinedto be less valuable. In other embodiments, each distributor may beassigned a portion of the remaining available clicks. For example, if arebate promotion is associated with 100 remaining clicks, multipledistributors may be selected, each being assigned a portion of theremaining clicks (e.g., 4 distributors with 25 clicks each).Alternatively, each distributor may accumulate clicks, up until a totalremaining amount (e.g., 100 clicks) is collectively reached. Althoughthe above examples show each of the multiple distributors receiving thesame allocation or the same number of clicks, in some embodiments, eachdistributor may have a different allocation or a different number ofclicks.

Once the allocation has been determined, the potential distributor(s)are notified (e.g., through a web page, pop-up, email message, and/orthe like) of the rebate promotion and/or the allocation associated withthe rebate promotion. The potential distributor may then be given anoption to agree to distribute of the information components associatedwith the rebate promotion. In some embodiments, a potential distributormay be automatically deemed to have agreed to distribute the informationcomponents, based upon one or more preference selections by thepotential distributor (e.g., a potential distributor may set apreference to automatically accept information components if the clickvalue is above a certain value).

In some embodiments, the above factors are processed or aggregated inorder to compute an allocation. For example, an allocation amount may becalculated as follows:

${allocation} = {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}{w_{i}f_{i} \times {click}\mspace{14mu}{value}}}$

where there are n allocation factors, with each individual criteriaf_(i) having an associated weight w_(i). The aggregated factors (Σ_(i=1)^(n)w_(i)c_(i)) may be calculated as a percentage value that is thenmultiplied by the click value of the rebate to be distributed in orderto obtain an allocation value for a distributor. In other embodiments,allocation may be calculated in other manners.

FIG. 22 illustrates a user interface in which an acquisition entity isgiven an option to sign up as a potential distributor, in accordancewith some embodiments. In some embodiments, after an acquisition entityhas completed a rebate promotion (e.g., through the expiration of arebate time period, the acquisition entity reaching the maximum rebatevalue, and/or the like), they may be prompted with a message 2104.Message 2104 may be in the form of a web page, pop-up, instant message,email, and/or the like. In some embodiments, message 2104 contains asummary of the rebate that the acquisition entity has completed, as wellas an offer to participate in future rebate promotions at an offeredclick value. The offered click value may be a default value or a valuebased on factors discuss above with reference to FIG. 21, such as, forexample, the acquisition entity's past rebate promotion participation, avalue based upon those accepted by distributors that are similar to theacquisition entity, and/or the like. If the acquisition entity considersthe offered click value to be too low, they may be prompted to input aclick value that will be acceptable to them (e.g., using text field2102).

In some embodiments, an offer to participate in future rebate promotionsas a distributor is only given to acquisition entities that meet certaincriteria (e.g., have made a purchase above a certain amount, haveachieved a threshold gross click amount, have achieved a threshold grossclick purity, and/or the like) as described above in reference to FIG.19.

While FIG. 22 illustrates message 2104 as being presented to theacquisition entity upon completion of a rebate promotion, in otherembodiments, messages offering an acquisition entity to participate infuture rebate promotions may be presented to the user at different times(e.g., while a current rebate promotion is still active, some time afterthey have completed the rebate promotion, and/or the like). For example,such a syndication offer may be provided to the acquisition entitieswhen there are extra clicks for the acquisition entities to share as adistributor. Thus, the acquisition entity may periodically receive suchoffers as opportunities to be a distributor arise.

FIG. 23 illustrates a flowchart of a process for syndicating a rebatepromotion with one or more potential distributors, in accordance withsome embodiments. In one embodiment, the method of FIG. 23 may beperformed by the workflow management system 101. In other embodiments,another suitably configured computing device may perform some or allblocks of the described method. Depending on the embodiment, the methodof FIG. 23 may include fewer or additional blocks and/or the blocks maybe performed in order different than is illustrated.

At block 2302, a rebate promotion is identified as a candidate forsyndication. In some embodiments, every rebate promotion is initiallyidentified for possible syndication. In some embodiments, rebatepromotions that are currently in progress may also be candidates forsyndication. For example, if it is determined that a rebate probationbeing shared by the original acquisition entity is not reaching adesired effectiveness (e.g., if a certain period of time has passedsince the original acquisition entity has shared the informationcomponents, but a threshold number of clicks has not yet been reached),the rebate promotion may be identified as a candidate for syndication.In some embodiments, the acquisition entity may request that a rebatepromotion is syndicated at any time, such as even immediately after thepurchase is completed and the rebate promotion is provided to theacquisition entity. For example, some acquisition entities may prefer toreceive a lower rebate amount (e.g., paying a portion of each clickvalue to a distributor), rather than posting the information componentsand obtaining clicks himself.

At block 2304, the original acquisition entity associated with therebate promotion is notified of the option to syndicate at least aportion of the rebate to one or more distributors. (e.g., as illustratedat 1004 in FIG. 10). In some embodiments, this option is presented tothe original acquisition entity when the original acquisition entity ispresented with the rebate promotion. In addition or in the alternative,this option may be presented to the original acquisition entity afterthe rebate promotion has already been accepted. For example, if acertain period of time has passed since the original acquisition entityshared the information components associated with the rebate promotion,but a threshold number of clicks has not yet been reached, the originalacquisition entity may be automatically presented with a messageindicating the option to syndicate at least a portion of the remainingclicks to one or more distributors.

At block 2306, the system determines whether the original acquisitionentity has accepted the option to syndicate the rebate promotion todistributors. If no acceptance is received, the process ends. In someembodiments, instead of notifying and receiving acceptance from theoriginal acquisition entity, the original acquisition entity may bedeemed to have accepted syndication to distributors based at least inpart upon one or more settings or preferences. Thus, in such anembodiment the original acquisition entity may not have an option todecline distributors of the rebate promotion and notice of syndicationof the rebate promotion may not be provided to the original acquisitionentity at all, or may be provided simply as a notice to the originalacquisition entity that the rebate promotion is being syndicated withoutan option for the original acquisition entity to decline the syndicationactivities.

At block 2308, one or more potential distributors are identified (e.g.,using the process illustrated in FIG. 19). At block 2310, an allocationis determined (e.g., using one or more of the factors illustrated inFIG. 21).

At block 2312, the identified distributors are notified of the rebatepromotion and/or the determined allocation.

At block 2314, the system determines whether any of the identifieddistributors have accepted the rebate promotion and the proposedallocation (which may be different for each potential distributor, asdiscussed above). If so, then at block 2316, information components forthe rebate promotion are distributed and shared through thedistributors. Else, if the identified distributors do not accept therebate promotion, the process ends without the rebate promotion beingsyndicated through the distributors. In some embodiments, the processmay return to block 2308 to identify another set of one or morepotential distributors, at which point criteria for selection ofdistributors may be adjusted, and/or an allocation may be adjusted, toincrease a likelihood that newly selected potential distributors willaccept the promotion.

In some embodiments, potential distributors may also be offered rebatepromotions that are not directly associated with a rebate promotion ofan original acquisition entity. For example, a vendor or vendor mayallocate a budget for rebates. However, not all of the rebates will beclaimed (e.g., due to acquisition entities or distributors not beingable to achieve a certain number of clicks prior to an expiration of apromotion time period, not enough acquisition entities participating inthe rebate promotion, or failure to sell enough products that qualifyfor the rebate in order to reach the allocated rebate budget). As aresult, it may be found that a portion of the budget for rebates is notdistributed. For example, a vendor may have designated a daily budget of$1000 for rebate promotions. However, at the end of the day, it may befound that only $800 in rebates have been claimed, leaving $200 leftover.

In some cases, a vendor may wish to reclaim the leftover budget.However, in other cases, it may be desirable to use the leftover budgetto syndicate additional information components to distributors in orderto generate additional clicks and purchases. In some embodiments, theleftover budget is used to create one or more new rebate promotions tobe offered to potential distributors. Creation and distribution of thenew rebate promotions may occur periodically (e.g., at the end of eachmonth), on an as-needed basis (e.g., whenever the amount of unclaimedrebates reaches a threshold value), or some combination thereof.

The information components associated with the newly created rebatepromotions may be the same information components used in previousrebate promotions, or may comprise different information components.Incentives and/or click values of the rebate promotions may bedetermined based upon a monetary value of the leftover budget, any ofthe factors illustrated in FIG. 21, and/or the like.

After new rebate promotions are created, potential distributors may beidentified (e.g., similar to block 2308 in FIG. 23). The process maythen proceed in a manner similar to that illustrated in FIG. 23.

FIG. 24 illustrates an example user interface for allowing a vendor toconfigure rebate promotions at a workflow management system, inaccordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, the example userinterfaces of FIGS. 24-26 are generated by the workflow managementsystem 101, and provided to vendors (or other advertisers) via thenetwork 102 (FIG. 1). Using the user interface of FIG. 24, a user (e.g.,an administrator or other personnel associated with a vendor or vendor)may create an account with the workflow management system. Once anaccount is created, the user may associate one or more vendors with theaccount. In addition, one or more rebate structures may be specified.For example, the user may specify a monetary budget to be used forrebates or for a type of rebate. Rebate parameters, such as the type ofrebate (e.g., percentage of purchase price or specific monetary value),duration of rebate campaign, minimum number of clicks and/or purchase toreceive the rebate, rebate percentage, rebate duration, and/or the likemay also be specified and displayed. Thus, each of the attributes in theRebate Structure section of the example user interface in FIG. 24 may beprovided by the advertiser, perhaps based on default values that areselected by the workflow management system based on average values forother similar advertisers, for example.

In some embodiments, a fee collected by a workflow management system mayalso be displayed. The fee may be a flat amount and/or a percentage ofthe monetary budget of the vendor. For example, if a budget of $1000 perday is allocated by a vendor for use in rebate promotions, the workflowmanagement system may be paid a percentage of that amount (e.g., 15%).In some embodiments, payment to the workflow management system isprocessed on a per click basis. Thus, if not all of the budget forrebate promotions is claimed, the workflow management system may only bepaid based upon the actually claimed rebate value. In some embodiments,the workflow management system may receive an additional payment when arebate promotion is syndicated to a distributor (a flat fee or a perclick fee), while in other embodiments payment is the same regardless ofwhether the rebate is achieved through an original acquisition entity ora syndicated distributor.

FIG. 25 illustrates an example user interface for displaying rebate datain accordance with some embodiments. In the illustrated interface, oneor more charts, tables, graphs, and/or the like may be used to providedata on the clicks that have been received in connection with sharedinformation components associated with a rebate promotion. For example,a chart or graph (e.g., a line graph) may be used to display how manyclicks to shared information components associated with a rebatepromotion were received over time. In addition, a table may be displayedthat lists how many clicks were received over different time periods. Insome embodiments, filters or controls may be included that allow a userto refine the data that is displayed. For example, a user may wish toview clicks received over a specific social network, clicks associatedwith material shared by certain acquisition entities, and/or the like.

The interface may also display one or more charts, tables, or graphsillustrating the source of the received clicks. For example, differentacquisition entities may choose to share information components throughdifferent referral channels (e.g., different social networks, differentblogs, etc.). In addition, the clicks may have been for informationcomponents shared by the original acquisition entity, or shared bydistributors. A first chart or graph may be displayed that breaks downthe distribution of clicks between different referrers. In addition, asecond chart or graph may display how clicks have been distributedbetween direct shares (e.g., shares by the original acquisition entity)and distributor shares (e.g., shares by syndicated distributors).

FIG. 26 illustrates an example user interface for displaying rebate datain accordance with some embodiments. In the illustrated interface, theRebate Data Analytics illustrates data such as a number of rebatesclaimed, total monetary value committed (e.g., total value of therebates if they were claimed in full), and total monetary value earned(e.g., total value earned by all acquisition entities participating inthe rebate promotion thus far). In addition, a table may be used todisplay data for individual acquisition entities that are participatingin the rebate promotion.

Additional Embodiments

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Any process descriptions, elements, or blocks in the flow diagramsdescribed herein and/or depicted in the attached figures should beunderstood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions ofcode which include one or more executable instructions for implementingspecific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternateimplementations are included within the scope of the embodimentsdescribed herein in which elements or functions may be deleted, executedout of order from that shown or discussed, including substantiallyconcurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionalityinvolved, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

All of the methods and tasks described herein may be performed and fullyautomated by a computer system. The computer system may, in some cases,include multiple distinct computers or computing devices (for example,physical servers, workstations, storage arrays, and so forth) thatelectronically communicate and interoperate over a network to performthe described functions. Each such computing device typically includes aprocessor (or multiple processors) that executes program instructions ormodules stored in a memory or other computer-readable storage medium.Where the system includes multiple computing devices, these devices may,but need not, be co-located. The results of the disclosed methods andtasks may be persistently stored by transforming physical storagedevices, such as solid state memory chips and/or magnetic disks, into adifferent state.

All of the methods and processes described above may be embodied in, andfully automated via, software code modules executed by one or moregeneral purpose computers. The code modules may be stored in any type ofcomputer-readable medium or other computer storage device. Some or allof the methods may alternatively be embodied in specialized computerhardware. The results of the disclosed methods be stored in any type ofcomputer data repository, such as relational databases and flat filesystems that use magnetic disk storage and/or solid state RAM.

Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiments, the elements of which are to be understood as being amongother acceptable examples. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure. Theforegoing description details certain embodiments of the invention. Itwill be appreciated, however, that no matter how detailed the foregoingappears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways. As is alsostated above, the use of particular terminology when describing certainfeatures or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply thatthe terminology is being re-defined herein to be restricted to includingany specific characteristics of the features or aspects of the inventionwith which that terminology is associated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of managing distribution of informationcomponents among multiple network accessible databases and by multipleentities, the method comprising: receiving, from a vendor, a securitykey including a unique identifier of the vendor and an indication of apurchase of a product by an acquisition entity via a vendor website, theindication including purchase data indicating an amount paid by theacquisition entity for the product; associating, by a computer systemhaving one or more computer processors, an account of the acquisitionentity with the purchase data including the amount paid by theacquisition entity for the product from the vendor, wherein the productqualifies for a rebate of up to a maximum rebate amount that isconditionally payable to the acquisition entity and one or moresecondary entities in a predetermined quantity of partial rebates thattotal the maximum rebate amount; automatically calculating, by the oneor more computer processors, a partial rebate for each of thepredetermined quantity of respective clicks on information components byrespective viewers; automatically receiving, from the vendor, asyndication sharing percentage indicating a percentage of the partialrebate to be paid to secondary entities; automatically calculating, bythe one or more computer processors, a first portion of the partialrebate to be paid to the acquisition entity and a second portion of thepartial rebate to be paid to respective secondary entities in responseto clicks on information components by respective viewers, wherein thesecond portion of the partial rebate to be paid to respective secondaryentities in response to clicks on information components posted by therespective secondary entity is the partial rebate multiplied by thesyndication sharing percentage; providing the acquisition entity withfirst information components including a first URL query parameter thatuniquely identifies the acquisition entity; accessing secondary entityinformation indicating purchases made by respective users; automaticallydesignating, based at least on the accessed secondary entityinformation, by the one or more computer processors, one or moreindividuals that each have previously purchased the same or similarproduct as potential secondary entities; for each of the potentialsecondary entities, automatically determining based at least on theaccessed secondary entity information, by the one or more computerprocessors: a raw number of clicks on information components depicted ininteractive user interfaces displayed on respective viewer computingdevices, wherein information components were posted by the potentialsecondary entity on one or more social media network in connection witha previously claimed rebate by the potential secondary entity; a portionof the raw number of clicks that are classified as legitimate clicks,wherein classification of clicks as legitimate is based at least on anIP address of the viewer computing device where the click was made bythe respective viewer; and a click purity indicating a ratio of thelegitimate clicks to the raw number of clicks; ranking the potentialsecondary entities based at least on the click purities; automaticallytransmitting electronic invitations to a plurality of the highest rankedpotential secondary entities; automatically receiving an indication ofacceptance of the invitation from a first of the potential secondaryentities, whereby the first potential secondary entity becomes asecondary entity and is eligible to receive the second portion ofpartial rebates; linking, by the one or more processors, promotion dataassociating the security key, the first URL query parameter, and asecond URL query parameter; providing the secondary entity with secondinformation components including the second URL query parameter thatuniquely identifies the secondary entity, wherein the secondary entityis authorized to post the second information components on one or moresocial media sites of the secondary entity; in response to receiving, atthe computer system, an indication that a viewer has clicked oninformation components, including third URL query parameters, which aredepicted in an interactive user interface displayed on a viewercomputing device, determining whether the predetermined quantity ofpartial rebates has been reached; if the predetermined quantity ofpartial rebates has been reached, not awarding a partial rebate to theacquisition entity or to the first secondary entity; or if thepredetermined quantity of partial rebates has not been reached,analyzing, by the one or more computer processors, the third URL queryparameters included in the clicked information components to determinethat a) the clicked information components include the first URL queryparameter of the promotion data or b) the clicked information componentsinclude the second URL query parameter of the promotion data; and inresponse to determining that the URL query parameters in the clickedinformation components include the first URL query parameter of thepromotion data, automatically crediting the account of the acquisitionentity the partial rebate; or in response to determining that the URLquery parameters in the clicked information components include thesecond URL query parameter of the promotion data, automaticallycrediting the account of the acquisition entity the first portion of thepartial rebate, and automatically crediting an account of the secondaryentity the second portion of the partial rebate.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein allocation of the rebate per click between the acquisitionentity and the secondary entity varies for certain clicks associatedwith a rebate promotion.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein a maximumrebate provided to the acquisition entity in response to the acquisitionentity alone providing the first information components that are clickedon by viewers is less than the maximum rebate when allocated between theacquisition entity and the secondary entity.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the potential secondary entities are further selected based onone or more of demographic characteristics or associations with thepurchased product.
 5. A computing system comprising: a hardware computerprocessor; a non-transitory computer readable medium having softwareinstructions stored thereon, the software instructions executable by thehardware computer processor to cause the computing system to performoperations comprising: receiving, from a vendor, a security keyincluding a unique identifier of the vendor and an indication of apurchase of a product by an acquisition entity via a vendor website, theindication including purchase data indicating an amount paid by theacquisition entity for the product; associating, by a computer systemhaving one or more computer processors, an account of the acquisitionentity with the purchase data including the amount paid by theacquisition entity for the product from the vendor, wherein the productqualifies for a rebate of up to a maximum rebate amount that isconditionally payable to the acquisition entity and one or moresecondary entities in a predetermined quantity of partial rebates thattotal the maximum rebate amount; automatically calculating, by the oneor more computer processors, a partial rebate for each of thepredetermined quantity of respective clicks on information components byrespective viewers; automatically receiving, from the vendor, asyndication sharing percentage indicating a percentage of the partialrebate to be paid to secondary entities; automatically calculating, bythe one or more computer processors, a first portion of the partialrebate to be paid to the acquisition entity and a second portion of thepartial rebate to be paid to respective secondary entities in responseto clicks on information components by respective viewers, wherein thesecond portion of the partial rebate to be paid to respective secondaryentities in response to clicks on information components posted by therespective secondary entity is the partial rebate multiplied by thesyndication sharing percentage; providing the acquisition entity withfirst information components including a first URL query parameter thatuniquely identifies the acquisition entity; accessing secondary entityinformation indicating purchases made by respective users; automaticallydesignating, based at least on the accessed secondary entityinformation, by the one or more computer processors, one or moreindividuals that each have previously purchased the same or similarproduct as potential secondary entities; for each of the potentialsecondary entities, automatically determining based at least on theaccessed secondary entity information, by the one or more computerprocessors: a raw number of clicks on information components depicted ininteractive user interfaces displayed on respective viewer computingdevices, wherein information components were posted by the potentialsecondary entity on one or more social media network in connection witha previously claimed rebate by the potential secondary entity; a portionof the raw number of clicks that are classified as legitimate clicks,wherein classification of clicks as legitimate is based at least on anIP address of the viewer computing device where the click was made bythe respective viewer; and a click purity indicating a ratio of thelegitimate clicks to the raw number of clicks; ranking the potentialsecondary entities based at least on the click purities; automaticallytransmitting electronic invitations to a plurality of the highest rankedpotential secondary entities; automatically receiving an indication ofacceptance of the invitation from a first of the potential secondaryentities, whereby the first potential secondary entity becomes asecondary entity and is eligible to receive the second portion ofpartial rebates; linking, by the one or more processors, promotion dataassociating the security key, the first URL query parameter, and asecond URL query parameter; providing the secondary entity with secondinformation components including the second URL query parameter thatuniquely identifies the secondary entity, wherein the secondary entityis authorized to post the second information components on one or moresocial media sites of the secondary entity; in response to receiving, atthe computer system, an indication that a viewer has clicked oninformation components, including third URL query parameters, which aredepicted in an interactive user interface displayed on a viewercomputing device, determining whether the predetermined quantity ofpartial rebates has been reached; if the predetermined quantity ofpartial rebates has been reached, not awarding a partial rebate to theacquisition entity or to the secondary entity; or if the predeterminedquantity of partial rebates has not been reached, analyzing, by the oneor more computer processors, the third URL query parameters included inthe clicked information components to determine that a) the clickedinformation components include the first URL query parameter of thepromotion data or b) the clicked information components include thesecond URL query parameter of the promotion data; and in response todetermining that the URL query parameters in the clicked informationcomponents include the first URL query parameter of the promotion data,automatically crediting the account of the acquisition entity thepartial rebate; or in response to determining that the URL queryparameters in the clicked information components include the second URLquery parameter of the promotion data, automatically crediting theaccount of the acquisition entity the first portion of the partialrebate, and automatically crediting an account of the secondary entitythe second portion of the partial rebate.